I CO
Of this work not more than 100 large paper, and 500 small paper,
copies have been printed, of which this is No. / small paper.
OF THE
orou<j0 «f (tor^amy on.
TWO VOLUMES,
Illustrated.
PREFACE BY
THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON,
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN BY
W. RVLAND L). ADKINS, B.A.,
Late History Exhibitioner of Balliol College, Oxford,
Barrister-at-La-w.
THE FIRST VOLUME EDITED BY
CHRISTOPHER A. MARKHAM, F.S.A.,
Hon. Sec. Northamptonshire Architectural Society,
Author of "The Church Plate of the County of Northampton," &c.
THE SECOND VOLUME EDITED BY THE
REV. J. CHARLES Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.,
Author of " Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals," &c.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CORPORATION
OF THE
COUNTY BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON.
1898.
GENERAL CONTENTS.
VOLUME ONE.
PAGE
PREFACE, BY THE BISHOP'OF LONDON iii.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, BY W. RYLAND D. ADKINS ... ... ix.
DOMESDAY BOOK i— 6
THE GREAT ROLLS OF THE PIPE ... ... 7 — 24
CHARTERS, LETTERS PATENT, AND ACTS OF PARLIAMENT ... 25—195
LIBER CUSTUMARUM 19? — 43°
LIST OF ACTS OF PARLIAMENT 433—448
LIST OF COUNCILS AND PARLIAMENTS 449 — 455
LEGAL NOTES ON THE LIBER CUSTUMARUM, BY T. GREEN ... 457—478
GLOSSARY ... 481
INDEX OF SUBJECTS ... 497
INDEX OF PERSONS 5°°
INDEX OF PLACES 5°8
VOLUME TWO.
PAGE
PREFACE iii.
INTRODUCTION i — 9
Civic GOVERNMENT AND STATE ... ... ... ... ... n — 99
Civrc JURISDICTION 101 — 149
TOWN PROPERTY, BUILDINGS, AND REVENUE 151 — 212
COMMONS AND CATTLE 213 — 229
PUBLIC HEALTH 231 — 271
THE TOWN TRADES 273—308
FREEMEN AND APPRENTICES ... ... ... ... ... 309 — 326
CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS 327 — 379
ALL SAINTS' AND OTHER CHURCHES 381—423
THE DEFENCES OF NORTHAMPTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH
STRUGGLE 425 — 463
ROYAL VISITS AND NATIONAL EVENTS ... ... 465 — 490
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 491 — 512
TOPOGRAPHICAL 513 — 528
VARIA ET ADDENDA 529 — 544
APPENDIX, WITH LISTS OF MAYORS AND BOROUGH OFFICIALS 545 — 571
INDEX 573
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OF THE
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PREFACE BY
THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON,
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN BY
W. RVLAND D. ADKINS, B.A.,
Late History Exhibitioner of Balliol College, Oxford,
Barrister-at-Law.
FIRST VOLUME
BY
CHRISTOPHER A. MARKHAM, F.S.A.,
Hon. Sec. Northamptonshire Architectural Society,
Author of "The Church Plate of the County of Northampton," &c.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CORPORATION
OF THE
COUNTY BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON.
fionbon : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER Row.
(Jtorf ^ampf on : BIRDSALL & SON, WOOD STREET.
520071
MiCPj •
••A- :
DP
(ttorfflampfon :
PRINTED BY STANTON AND SON, ABINGTON STREET.
ELECTRONIC VERSION
AVAILABLE
PREFACE.
f COUNT it a high distinction to be permitted to associate
myself, in any degree, with a work of such importance as the
mblication of the Records of the Borough of Northampton. At
he time when that work was undertaken I was Bishop of the
liocese in which Northampton lies, and was consulted in the
initial stages. I then promised to write an historical introduction,
but my removal from Peterborough has deprived me alike of the
leisure and the appropriateness for such a task. I can only express
my personal gratification at the result of much labour to set forth
the history and development of a town which ranks high in
historical importance, as Mr. Ryland Adkins, with a severe
repression of undue patriotism, has abundantly shown.
The publication of municipal records has a twofold value. It
gives a great stimulus to the accurate study of local history, and
affords a strong incentive to that sentiment of civic duty on which
our local self government must ultimately rest. At the same time
it is of importance to all students of English institutions ; for they
can only be fully understood when a great mass of material has
been collected in an available form. Every publication of records
affords material for correcting old theories, and for framing new
ones. It is from dry records that we shall be able in time to
construct a picture of the actual life of our ancestors. It is with
this daily life of the multitude that history is leaning to concern
itself. The growth and working of social organisation are matters
of primary importance, and can only be discovered by carefully
iv NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
studying the records of municipal business. We can there see
what men were trying to do, and we can estimate the success of
the methods they employed.
To those resident in the neighbourhood of Northampton this
book will be of great interest as being, in a very definite manner,
their family archives. It is a memorial of the process by which
their town acquired an organised life. English municipal institutions
developed from below, and were not imposed from above. The
right of self-government depended, and always must depend, upon
the capacity to exercise it. Royal charters were a recognition of
the fact that a borough could manage its affairs for itself better
than they could be managed for it. This fact was proved by
showing that it was profitable for all parties concerned. Self-
government was not the result of any speculative system, but wras
the most economical way of conducting the business both of the
locality and of the state. The charters granted to Northampton are
so many indications of the growth of its burghers in shrewdness
and in capacity for business.
If we would know what that business was, we have an account
of remarkable detail in the " Liber Custumarum," which contains
in a codified form the customs and regulations which had gradually
grown up for the management of the town's affairs. It is
noticeable that it took shape at a time when the restoration of
order was of primary importance in England. This proves
that during a period of weakness in the state local effort had
grown stronger and more conscious of its power. The regulations
contained in this book show how large a part of the administra-
tion of law in England had fallen into the hands of civic
authorities. For instance, the provisions for regulating the market
are not so much made for the purpose of facilitating trade
in itself, but for maintaining order and preventing robbery in
PREFACE.
the neighbourhood. It was this desire which animated the
conclusions laid down in the debates held by the burghers on
Sundays after service time in All Saints' Church. There was
a persistent belief that all evils could be remedied by stricter
enactments, and as soon as grievances arose an effort was
made to redress them. Every trade had its own ordinances for
maintaining that discipline, without which it did not hope to thrive.
It is a characteristic of the Middle Ages that men adopted a high
standard, and did not despair of attaining to it, however little
support their hopes might derive from actual facts. Now-a-days
we have a dread of interference, and shrink from making regulations
which are not likely to be observed ; our forefathers always set
forth an ideal, which they knew to be impossible of attainment, but
which, nevertheless, expressed the principles on which social life
was founded. In these days of universal criticism it is pathetic to
read the weighty reasons which are assigned for imposing a fine
on those who railed against the mayor and burgesses. (I. 313.)
The deepest consideration of the causes on which the well-being
of states depends is necessary to justify an attempt to close the
mouths of captious critics. In many matters which are treated in
the " Liber Custumarum " we see how the evil practices of com-
mercial life remain the same, though we may perhaps claim that
they have been greatly lessened. But there runs through the
ordinances on these points a spirit which is rare now-a-days, a
desire to preserve the fair fame of the town as a whole. Com-
mercial honesty was regarded as a valuable possession for the
borough, in which all trades must stand or fall together.
The organisation of the civic Council in later days, and its mode
of transacting business, are amply illustrated by the extracts made
from its records by Dr. Cox. The change from an assembly of
burgesses to a civic Corporation, made by the Act of Parliament
passed in 1489, is a great epoch, and we would like to have more
VI NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
definite information about the events which actually brought it
about. There were, of course, many general political causes at work
at that time. But there is one consideration which springs out of
the matter itself. Business naturally falls into the hands of those
who are most willing to do it. In a popular assembly power passes
into the hands of committees of experts, who are generally left a
free hand. But when there is a time of developed activity, outside
criticism increases, and a multitude of tongues make themselves
heard. The committee of experts regard this as a dangerous
innovation, and think they are justified in taking away an obsolete
right which is injuriously exercised for the purpose only of creating
confusion. This is the view which is embodied in the preamble of
this statute. (I. 101.) There is no conscious hypocrisy about it,
but a desire to keep things as they were in the good old times.
I cannot undertake to compare in detail the borough of North-
ampton with other English boroughs, and point out its distinguishing
peculiarities. This is a work for students of municipal institutions.
But every English town had characteristics of its own, which were
expressed in its history. It is this variety of actual practice which
gives unfailing interest to local records. The practical temper of
the English mind is shown in its power of silent adaptation of
institutions to actual needs. Municipal history is not to be studied
by a consideration of the logical development of constitutional
ideas, but by a recognition that the mode of doing business was
suggested by the nature of the business to be done. If this be so,
it is obvious that the history of English towns cannot be written
from one or two selected examples, which are taken as typical
because their records are available for study. Each borough has its
own contribution to make, for it had its own independent life.
For this reason the records of every borough have an importance
of their own. Their publication is not merely for the satisfaction
of local patriotism, or the gratification of local antiquarians, but
PREFACE.
Vll
is a substantive contribution to the history of that distinguishing
quality of the English people, their capacity for managing their
own affairs, quietly and reasonably, with a view solely to discover
what is the fairest and wisest way of dealing with each question
that arises. History consists, after all, in showing the working in
any sphere of the qualities of the race.
M. LONDON.
Vlll
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE I.— The Charter of ist Richard I....
CUT.— Initial Letter of Charter
CUT.— Initial Letter of Charter ...
CUT.— Initial Word
CUT. — Initial Letter
CUT. — Initial Letter of Charter
Frontispiece
p. 116
1x8
363
421
CONTENTS.
PAGE
DOMESDAY BOOK i
THE GREAT ROLLS OF THE PIPE ... 7
CHARTER OF IST RICHARD I. ... ... ... ... ... ... 25
CHARTER OF IST JOHN... 30
LETTERS PATENT OF 3RD HENRY III 34
LETTERS PATENT OF QTH HENRY III. 36
CHARTER OF IITH HENRY III 38
LETTERS PATENT OF 36™ HENRY III. 41
CHARTER OF 3QTH HENRY III. ... .. ... 44
CHARTER OF 4isT HENRY III 46
LETTERS PATENT OF 52ND HENRY III 49
LETTERS PATENT OF 52ND HENRY III. ... 51
LETTERS PATENT OF 54TH HENRY III 53
LETTERS PATENT OF 13™ EDWARD I. .. ... 54
CHARTER OF 2yTH EDWARD I. ... ... ... ... ... ... 56
LETTERS PATENT OF 2grn EDWARD I. 58
PLEAS OF THE CROWN 61
LETTERS PATENT OF 3RD EDWARD III. 64
LETTERS PATENT OF QTH EDWARD III 65
CHARTER OF IITH EDWARD III. ... ... ... ... ... 66
CHARTER OF STH RICHARD II. ... 68
LETTERS PATENT OF 2ND HENRY IV. 72
LETTERS PATENT OF QTH HENRY VI 75
LETTERS PATENT OF iyTH HENRY VI. 75
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
PAGE
CHARTER OF 23RD HEXKY VI ... 77
LETTERS PATENT OF 30™ HENRY VI. 81
CHARTER OF 38TH HENRY VI. ... . . ... 84
LETTERS PATENT OF IST EDWARD IV. 89
LETTERS PATENT OF 2ND EDWARD IV 91
LETTERS PATENT OF 2ND EDWARD IV. ... ... ... ... 92
LETTERS PATENT OF i8TH EDWARD IV. ... ... ... ... ... 93
LETTERS PATENT IST RICHARD III. .. ... ... ... ... 97
ACT OF PARLIAMENT OF 4TH HENRY VII 101
CHARTER OF IITH HENRY VII. ... ... ... 104
LETTERS PATENT OF IITH HENRY VII no
LETTERS PATENT OF 2ND HENRY VIII in
LETTERS PATENT OF 5TH HENRY VIII ... ... ... 113
LETTERS PATENT OF IST EDWARD VI. ... ... 116
LETTERS PATENT OF IST AND 2ND PHILIP AND MARY ... ... 117
LETTERS PATENT OF 4iST ELIZABETH ... 119
LETTERS PATENT OF i6TH JAMES I. ... 125
LETTERS PATENT 15™ CHARLES II ... ... 137
LETTERS PATENT 35TH CHARLES II 143
LETTERS PATENT OF IST ANNE 148
EXEMPLIFICATION OF A JUDGEMENT ... 149
LETTERS PATENT OF 36™ GEORGE III. ... ... ... ... 151
LETTERS PATENT OF STH GEORGE IV ... 184
ACT OF PARLIAMENT OF $TH AND 6TH WILLIAM IV 186
LETTERS PATENT OF 6TH WILLIAM IV. ... 187
LETTERS PATENT OF 6TH WILLIAM IV 188
LETTERS PATENT OF IST VICTORIA ... ... ... 191
LETTERS PATENT OF 4isT VICTORIA ... .. ... 193
NORTHAMPTON TOLL CAUSE ... ... 195
CONTENTS.
XI
L
IBER CUSTUMARUM ...
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT RELATING TO NORTHAMPTON
COUNCILS AND PARLIAMENTS HOLDEN AT NORTHAMPTON
LEGAL NOTES ON THE LIBER CUSTUMARUM
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
GLOSSARY
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
INDEX OF PERSONS ... 500
INDEX OF PLACES 508
PAGE
197
433
449
455
479
481
497
(position of Qtoriflampfon in
BY
W. RYLAND D. ADKINS,
B.A., Land.,- Late History Exhibitioner, of Balliol College, Oxford,
Barrister -at -Law.
THE POSITION OF NORTHAMPTON IN
ENGLISH HISTORY.
4E town of Northampton, whose municipal life is described in
these volumes, first becomes of importance in English history
at the time of the Norman Conquest. Its position, on ground
sloping gently to the south-west, and bounded on the west and south
by the river Nene, which, flowing south from Naseby, is here
joined by the Weedon water, and turns east to Peterborough,
must have always been a strong and convenient one. But the
Britons selected the brow of the hill to the south of Northampton,
where an enclosure and fosse, miscalled Danes' Camp, has yielded
in our day one of the richest collections of pre-Roman remains.
The Roman, to whom the Nene valley was an important boundary
when Britain was in process of being conquered, had most of his
forts on the south of the valley, while avoiding Danes' Camp or
Hunsbury Hill, and when the district was settled, chose as his
chief abode the south-eastern slopes of Duston, to the west of
modern Northampton, though slight remains of Roman-British times
in the Castle area indicate an obscure community on the site
which was afterwards so important. The Saxon undoubtedly had
both a village and a fort where the Norman afterwards built, but
before the Conquest the town has only antiquarian interest. It is
probable that the Nene valley was a boundary between the Angle
and Saxon in the centuries when they were settling England, and
it is certain that the same line of country marks roughly the
southern boundary of Danish permanent settlement, but neither
the Angle nor Dane made a chief stronghold of this clearing
between the forest and the river. Local antiquaries have differed
much as to whether the Castle really existed in Saxon times, but
the better opinion is that at "Hamtune" Edward the Elder in 922,
after defeating the Danes, erected there one of the chain of
forts with which he overawed the Danes who had settled and de-
fended the heart of his kingdom against those who were to come,
and that this was on the site of what was afterwards Northampton
Castle, and that when in 1010 the Danes burned " Hamtune " it
was a place of some size, straggling along the north bank of the
river, and protected by its fort, but of no special political value.
Thus it remained till the Norman came, when it was a town of
* 2
XVI NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
about 60 houses, having some churches, the number of which
cannot now be ascertained, and, if a passage from Ingulphus is to
be trusted, possessing in a rudimentary form a monastic settlement
which was afterwards to become the famous Priory of St. Andrew.
Its mint was closed, common as provincial mints were ; it gave its name
to no Earl ; and its unimportance is marked by the fact that when
in 1065 Harold met the insurgent Earls Edwin and Morcar here
fresh from the displacement of Tostig in Northumberland, the
conference agreed to was held not here, but at Oxford, and little,
if any, attempt was made to hinder the Northern forces from
ravaging the neighbourhood.
With the establishment of William's rule, Northampton emerges
from obscurity into fame, and for two hundred and fifty years is
constantly the scene of great events, and one of the principal
centres of the kingdom. This it owed simply to its geographical
position. As already said, it was naturally a good site for a
fortified town, and the neighbouring forests, shrunk in modern
times to the remote and narrow limits of Rockingham, Salcey, and
Whittlebury, were for political and sporting reasons attractive to
the Norman kings. Yet such advantages it shared with many
places. What was its special value was its position — about half-
way between Winchester (the national capital) and York (the capital
of the North), and similarly half-way between the Welsh Marches
and the East coast. A town so placed was invaluable to the
Norman and Plantagenet Kings. The problem before them was
to keep a firm grip on the whole kingdom, and to consolidate it
into unity. Hence the old divisions of the country were of little
concern to them. In Saxon times national unity only appears in
rare and fitful gleams, when a strong monarch like Edward the
Elder, Edgar, or Canute could obliterate provincial independence.
Even so late as Edward the Confessor, the division of England into
Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex was the really significant one,
and the power of the crown was practically subordinate to it.
Such a state of things it was natural for the Norman to fight
against, and belonging to neither section, his impartial tyranny was
untiringly devoted to weld England into one. For such a purpose
it was essential to make his hold on the centre of the country as
firm and as personal as possible. Northampton was chosen by one
after another of the Plantagenet monarchs as a place of constant
resort, whither it was easy to summon, and whence it was quick to
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. XV11
pursue the turbulent Welsh, the restless North, the intriguing Bigods
of Norfolk, or the rebellious barons of the West.
The earliest and best proof of the new importance of the town is
given in Domesday Book. From being a village of 60 houses under
King Edward, it had risen to be a town of 330 ; of these no less
than 100 belonged to the King, and 85 to his half brother, the Earl
of Mutan, his niece, the Countess Judith, or his natural son, William
Peverel, while houses belonging to the great barons are either
few or conspicuous by their absence. The King's personal hold on
the town and its growth could scarcely be more strikingly shown.
And what appears from Domesday is borne out by William having
given the Earldom of Northampton first to Waltheof, the son of the
great Siward, and known to us alike by his prowess in arms and
his vacillating weakness in statecraft, and then to Simon de St. Liz,
endowing it, among other things, with the Countess Judith's local
possessions, as well as with the hand of her daughter Maud. The
first of these grants, that to the Northumbrian Earl, is characteristic
of William's earlier policy of conciliation, while the second, to one of
his own personal followers marks his later plan of relying on
personal adherents rather than on men previously eminent in
England and Normandy, and both show the importance he
attached to the control of Northampton.
The marriage of Simon and Maud in 1084 commences the rule of
the principal mediaeval earls of Northampton, the St. Liz. The
three Earls — father, son, and grandson — held the Earldom for just
a century, and had a large share in developing the life of the town.
The small priory of St. Andrew was enlarged, if not refounded, by
the first Simon, and endowed with the patronage of the nine
churches which Northampton in 1084 possessed. The church of
the Holy Sepulchre was founded by the same man, and he built in
Norman fashion the Castle on the site of the old Saxon fort, and
surrounded the growing town with a wall. These works occupied
much of the time when Rufus was King, and the second St. Liz
continued his father's type of energy by founding the Abbey of
Delapre" in the meadows south of the town, and by re-building the
church of St. Peter in a style which stands to our own day.
Besides these facts, there is nothing to record till the solitary
surviving Pipe Roll of Henry ist, that of 1131, tells us that the
farm rent of Northampton to the crown was £100, whereas in
Domesday it had been only £30. In the same year, too, was
XV111 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
held at Northampton the first of the councils which became so
frequent there afterwards.
Here the old and wearied king, who was familiar with North-
ampton as the scene of a conference with his brother Robert, in 1106,
and the place where he spent Easter in 1121-22, called the baronage
together to swear fealty on the high altar of All Saints' church
to his daughter, the Empress Maude. By a curious coincidence it
was here that Stephen called his first council in 1136 or 1138 to
receive the allegiance of the men previously sworn to his cousin,
and St. Liz was throughout his reign one of the unvarying sup-
porters of the king. Stephen held his court here in 1144.
With the reign of Henry II. more details come to light of the
position and importance of Northampton. The Pipe Rolls, which
have been preserved continuously from the second year of his
reign, tell us that the farm rent of the town when he came to
the throne was the hundred pounds it had been in his grand-
father's time, rising in 1184 to the one-hundred-and- twenty pounds
at which it stood for three hundred years. The king's constant
visits to Northampton mark his sense of its central and strategic
position. He was here in fifteen different years of his reign, a fact
which in view of his frequent absence in France, once for four years
at a time, indicates an almost annual visit when in England. Here
resided his third son, Geoffrey, for a year in 1170-71, when the
king and the rest of the court were in Anjou. In 1157 a council
was held at Northampton, chiefly on ecclesiastical affairs, and
after a fruitless attempt at settlement between Becket and the king
at Northampton in 1163, the great council of the following year
saw, perhaps, the most dramatic of the historic scenes which
happened here, when Becket, condemned by the king and council
for his refusal to accept the constitutions of Clarendon and sur-
render clerical privileges to the common level of citizenship,
appealed to the pope, and fled by night from the populace who
adored him, and from the monarch and barons who meant his
submission or destruction. Sympathy may well be divided between
the great churchman, free from vulgar selfishness, and yet struggling
for class pretensions which were ruinous to the state, and the
wise though brutal king, whose violent and oppressive temper
cannot disguise the justice and statesmanship of his administrative
methods. The incident is one made familiar by the prose of Froude
and the poetry of Tennyson. Its significance for one sketching the
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. xix
history of the town where it happened lies in the indication it
gives of the consequence of the place where the priory of St.
Andrew led the burgesses in enthusiastic support of the archbishop,
and the strength of the fortress chosen by the king as the spot
suitable to bring to a head his vital conflict with Becket.
In the rebellion of 1173-74, in which the younger Henry had
the assistance of some of the greatest barons in his attempt to
seize his father's throne, Northampton stood for the old king. Here
he paid a flying visit of four days in the autumn of 1173, and the
Earl of Northampton, the last of the St. Liz, besieged Huntingdon
along side De Lacy, the justiciar in the same interest. The
constable of Leicester, acting for the Earl, one of the rebels, and
then a prisoner in Normandy, defeated the king's burgesses of
Northampton early the next year, and later in the summer North-
ampton was the place at which the king received the submission
of the defeated barons.
It was at this date that Northampton castle became royal
property. Why St. Liz, then in favour, relinquished it ten years
before his death is now beyond ascertainment, but since he then
obtained Huntingdon, and was known afterwards as the Earl of
Huntingdon, it is possible that there was practically a surrender
of the castle, if not of the Earldom, in exchange for that of
Huntingdon.
The next council held here two years later had no local
bearings, but is memorable as that at which the whole country
was for the first time divided into circuits for the anuual visits of
judges, a tentative plan of the circuits having been successful a
year before. Again the next year a great council was held in
the town, the last held there in the reign, which marks the end
of the rebellion by the restoration of the Earls of Leicester and
Chester to their honours. Henceforward Henry had quiet in
England.
The important year, however, of this reign for the history of
the borough is 1184. In that year died Simon, the last of the
St. Liz Earls of Northampton, and the shrewd burgesses seized
the chance to buy from the king the right of holding the town
of him in capite.
This is the true beginning of municipal life. Freed by this
means from dependence on the sheriff, and so made separate from
the county, no longer having a local earl to overawe them, the
XX NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
burgesses of Northampton had the king and the king only to deal
with, and were launched on the stream of local independence,
which naturally led to their gaining five years later from Richard I.
their earliest charter by which they could choose their own reeve,
and be free as tenants on the royal domain from tolls and exactions
throughout the kingdom.
And this local independence was made much easier by the
absence of any powerul baron in their immediate neighbourhood.
Either in 1174, or at Earl Simon's death, the crown acquired those
large estates in Northamptonshire which the Conqueror had given
to his niece Judith. These, together with previous royal property,
and especially the three great forests already referred to, made
the crown practically the sole large landowner in Northamptonshire
at this time, and Northampton gained thereby. The forests, as is
now well known, were not only preserved for hunting, but being
outside the ordinary law formed imperia in imperio of which the
Angevin kings were jealous guardians, none more so than
Henry II. He was at Northampton in 1175, holding a circuit to
enquire into encroachments on his forests in the county during
the late rebellion, and his vigilance doubtless prevented any new
estates being carved out of Whittlebury or Rockingham. In this
reign, too, the residential attraction of the neighbourhood of North-
ampton for the sovereign is most marked. Beside the castle of
Rockingham, which he cared for less than did his grandfather, or
Rufus, Henry had a palace of importance at Geddington, fifteen
miles from Northampton, in the heart of the forest, and there
held a great council in 1188, besides paying many less important
visits. He had, too, a hunting lodge further north at King's
Cliffe, and one at Silverstone, thirteen miles south of Northampton,
in Whittlebury forest, both of which are known to have seen him
not infrequently.
The effect of the royal residences in the vicinity was naturally
to lead to royalty and great officials passing through the town, to
bring the town into close relation with king and court, while
making it more independent of lesser dignities, and so to give it
that character of a privileged and favoured town on the royal
domain, which gives the key to its municipal growth during the
succeeding reigns.
In that of Richard I., we meet for the first time with detailed
notice of the local mint which is referred to in the Pipe Roll of
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. xxi
1160, the inspector thereof paying a fine to the exchequer to be
quit of his office in 1198, and Richard spent Easter of 1194 here,
attended at his council by William, the Scotch king. The value of
the castle, too, is shown very early in the reign, when one of the
terms of settlement of the dispute between John and the chancellor
is the commitment of the castle to Simon de Patteshall who
engaged if the king died without issue to deliver it up to John.
Still more striking is the selection of Northampton for the
meeting of notables at the death of Richard, to swear fealty to
John, then in Normandy, and to impose conditions of their loyalty
upon their new king.
John, indeed, all through his reign had much to do with North-
ampton. In his first year he issued to the town a charter confirming
that of Richard, and adding new privileges, such as the election
of four coroners, and the bailiffs. A year or two later the mint is
again mentioned, and the king not only visited the town in fourteen
out of the seventeen years of his reign, and in one year as many
as four times, thirty-one visits in all, but removed the exchequer
hither from London in 1209 for six months. In 1212 he held here
the council where he met the Nuncios, Pandulph and Durand, and
failing to satisfy them was excommunicated. To a king situated
as wras John in the midst of disaffection, the castle of Northampton
was invaluable. Orders for its repair and maintenance appear in
the rolls for 1205 and 1213, and particulars of the change of its
castellan in 1215. When the civil \var broke out Fitz Walter and
the army of God and the Holy Church beseiged it in vain for
fourteen days, and after the granting of Magna Carta it was one o*
four castles given to the barons as security for the performance of
the charter. It reverted to the King's power on the turn of the tide
a year later, and was held for him by Fulk de Breaute at the close
of his reign.
Meanwrhile the town itself was growing in population and inde-
pendence. In 1202 the Monks of St. Andrew's were at variance with
their vicars, the clergy of the town churches, because the latter
had opened additional churches (practically chapels of ease)
without their patrons' leave. The dispute was referred to Rome,
and the Pope decided against the vicars. Thus is seen the growth
of the town, which needed more churches and that divergence
of feeling between the secular and regular clergy which marked
the rise of independent life in a mediaeval town. And as the
xxil NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
town had withstood the Priory, so it dared to quarrel with the
Castle. In 1216, provoked doubtless by the devastation civil
war was working in Northampton, the townsmen rose on the
King's garrison, and killed many, only to suffer the penalty of
having a large part of the town burned over their heads.
These are apparently passing incidents, but they show us how,
at the death of John, Northampton was no longer a collection of
dwellings clustered round castle or abbeys. These were still here,
and more powerful than ever, but alongside the forces of Church
and King were beginning the energies of the citizens, chosing their
own chief magistrates, anxious after their own welfare, and building
up steadily the edifice of municipal life.
These energies were destined to increase greatly throughout the
long reign of John's irresolute son. At the beginning, no doubt,
Northampton suffered for the time, as records speak of waste houses
within its walls. But its character as a Royal town, resorted to
by the Court for festival and council, soon restored its prosperity.
The 1200 marks exacted by way of aid from the town in 1227
speaks well of its reputed wealth. Before this, the capture of
Bedford Castle by the King (1224) had seen the end of the tur-
bulent career of Fulk de Breaute, who might indeed entertain the
King at Northampton, as he did in 1218, but who was bent on
quasi-independent rule, and who is the last of the sheriffs in our
history to show the continuous turbulence of an earlier age.
Henry, who had in 1218 issued letters patent regulating the fairs
of Northampton, and in 1224 granted to the burgesses tolls on things
entering the town for three years in aid of enclosing and fortifying
the town, signalised his full assumption of kingly power in 1227 by
confirming his father's charter on the usual terms of a handsome
payment for the confirmation. In 1252 came fresh letters patent,
granting tolls for enclosing the town, and addressed this time not to
the sheriff, but to the mayor and burgesses, the reeve being known
as the mayor as early as Richard I.'s time, when a witness to
conveyances. In 1255 a charter gives the burgesses relief from
arrest for debt, with certain limitations. In 1257 a similar document
gives many additional privileges, notably that of returning the
King's writs themselves, and not through the sheriff, and freeing
the town from the right of the sheriff to make distress in the
borough.
This brings the municipal history to the beginning of the
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. xxiii
Barons' war, and the town had been prospering steadily. The
religious temper of the King had been shown by his removing in
1236 the old town fair from All Saints' churchyard, where it
had been held from before the Conquest, and in 1246 he had given
a library and sacramental plate to All Saints', and smaller vessels of
silver to the other parish churches More important is the flight
of the Oxford students here from 1230 to 1258, joined by Cam-
bridge students in 1258, and the consequent founding of a
University under Royal sanction, which numbered thousands of
scholars, and only perished by the pressure which Oxford as a
Royalist centre put upon the King in 1262 to close the new rival.
For by this time the Barons' war had broken out, and at North-
ampton the townsmen, especially the students, were on the side of
the Barons. The Castle was held by the younger De Montford in
1264, and the capture of the town by Henry and Prince Edward,
through the convenient assistance of the Monks of St. Andrew's,
who surreptitiously admitted them, was the first Royalist success of
the war. In the next year the great Earl Simon re-captured it, only
to lose it to the King later in the year, and it was here in December,
1265, that the King summoned his array to meet and drive the
Barons from Kenilworth. The campaign thus opened, closed with
the victory at Evesham, and Northampton was the place chosen for
the council held in 1266 to inflict penalties on the vanquished, and
restore order to the country. In 1268, at Midsummer, it was here
that Edward and many other knights assumed the cross before
starting on the crusade, in the presence of the King and Queen and
of his wife, the heroic Eleanor of Castille.
Although the town's baronial leanings may have had a little to
do with its losing its University, it otherwise continued in court
favour after the war. Its charters were confirmed in 1268, when
the burgesses received a general pardon for their share in the
rebellion, and letters patent in 1278 gave them the prized benefit of
keeping dogs in town and suburbs without expeditating or lawing
them, an inroad upon the rigorous forestial regulations in their favour,
which shows, as social privileges always do show, more than greater
things, the prosperity of those receiving them.
The new reign of Edward I. was marked as regards Northampton
by a Royal Inquisition, the results of which are recorded in the
Hundred Roll. From this it appears that in spite of the wars the
town had increased so much as to encroach on the open space which
XXIV NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
in a mediaeval town was always left between the houses and the
walls, and the business-like habits of the burgesses was shown
by the account they presented to the King's commissioners of money
due to them from the crown for various entertainings of Royal
officers and transmission of Royal property. If the town obtained
all it claimed, some £876, they had the best of the commissioners.
The next incidents of Northampton's greatness are sinister. Here,
in 1277, 300 Jews were executed for clipping the King's coin, doubtless
because it was a central place to wrhich to bring malefactors, the Castle
having had a special gaol in it for the last generation. Here in 1284,
when David, the last of the Welsh princes, was captured and
executed, one of his quarters was given to Northampton to be shown
on the gate, thus indicating it as one of the most notable towns in
England. The same idea is shown in Northampton being chosen in
1283-4 as the place of a Parliament for the counties south of Trent.
It was, indeed, in Edwardian times that the town was at its
zenith. An extensive grant of tolls for re-building the walls in
1301 indicates the then enlargement of the town to include
within the circuit of its defence the large church of St. Giles, and
much orchard and farm land, making an area which was not built upon
until within living memory. Then was it that the new Town Hall
was built on the edge of the Chequer (the Market square), opposite
the churchyard of All Saints, while the centre of the town, geographi-
cally and commercially, was shifted eastward, to the said Town
Hall and square. In 1299 Edward I., who visited the town
at intervals, gave a comfirmatory charter, specially emphasizing
the right of chosing a mayor and two bailiffs, and Edward II.,
though adding no charter, held Parliaments here in 1307 and 1317,
to which Northampton sent — as, indeed, it did to the first true
Parliament, that of 1295 — its own representatives In the requisition
for the Scotch war in 1322 Northampton sent 40 men for 40 days at
its own expense to meet the King at Newcastle, a larger number than
any town save Winchester, which sent 50, and one which contrasts
with the 20 sent by Cambridge and Canterbury, the 26 of Exeter, the
25 of Oxford, the 10 of Bedford, and Leicester's 12.
It was here that young King Edward III. held, in 1328, the
famous Parliament which confirmed the Scotch treaty, and yielded
back the records brought by his grandfather from Scotland, an
assembly which has still better title to remembrance from passing
the ist statute of Northampton, which strengthened the processes
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. XXV
of justice, confirmed the Great and Forest Charters, and checked,
though only temporarily, the monopoly of the staple. At this time
we hear in detail of Queen Isabella staying at the Priory of St»
Andrew, of the formalities attaching to the custody of the great
seal, and of the absence of the armed men, who had been too
used to overcome the deliberation of councils. A little earlier than
this an act (17 Edward II.) forbidding tournaments had allowed
that one more should be held at IN orthampton, and a little later than
this we note that farm rent of Northampton was assigned a part of
the support of the Queen Isabella in her melancholy captivity at
Castle Rising.
Besides its connection with the court-— other parliaments being
held here by Edward III. in 1331 and 1338 — Northampton showed
increasingly as a centre of ecclesiastical forces. As early as
1290 the friars in the town were of enough consequence to be
entertained for three days successively by King Edward I., who
was then residing here, and the period now described saw the
settlement of all four orders of Friars — the Grey, the White, the
Black, and the Austin — within the town of Northampton. Only
eleven towns possessed settlements of all four orders at the time of
the dissolution of the monasteries.
With boundaries enlarged, and benefiting by the wider liberties
of each charter, and by the town's position as a political and religious
centre, the burgesses of Northampton naturally developed pretensions
to enforce their authority on the surrounding country. In 1330 a
presentment was made against the Bailiffs of the town for taking
unlawful tolls in a manner which to modern notions seem curiously
impudent. The town was empowered to take toll of persons passing
through it with carts and merchandise, and in order to prevent
anyone evading payment by going round, stationed the toll houses
miles outside on the principal roads. In this case the town had
one at Slipton, 17 miles away towards Peterborough, and the result
here was to limit the bailiffs to taking toll only of those coming to
Northampton, not of those who might be passing through Slipton
to Leicester, or Rothwell, or elsewhere. Only a town of strength
and influence would dare to put a toll house so far afield.
At home the civic life progressed apace. The ordinance of 1311
made Northampton one of the towns of the Statute Merchant, and
the mayor accordingly had the power of witnessing by a special
seal the pledges of debtors, and by the time of Edward III., the
XXVI NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
town had had its common seal for a century, and had a mayoral
seal as well. The community was organised as the mayor, twelve
burgesses (probably ex-mayors), and commonalty, and it met in
the church of St. Giles, partly because of its size, partly because
of its convenient distance at the opposite end of the town from the
Castle and the Castle influences.
If the Barons' war had seen Northampton Castle at its strongest,
and the fifteenth century was to see Northampton reach its goal
in a charter of incorporation, and the full priviliges of justices and
a recorder, it was, as been said, under the Edwards that the town,
looked at on all sides of its life, played the largest figure in English
history. A thoughtful burgess of the time might well think that
his town was destined to be permanently one of the capitals of
the country. It had municipal privileges shared by few ; it boasted
of a royal Castle, and had had three parliaments held there in
twelve years. A little later one of the royal heralds took his title from
Northampton. The great religious orders chose it for their head
quarters, of the trade in wool it had its full share, and a seal of
a great interest bearing the head of Edward I., is one of a cloth
subsidy, denoting that Northampton manufactured cloth for export
and that the duty had been paid thereon.
Yet this apparently secure prosperity was but the prelude to a
long and steady decline. Already in Edward III.'s time the Castle
which had made the town was wearing towards decay. It had
suffered in the Barons' wars. Edward I., who was always fighting
his enemies in their countries not his own, and who at one time
did not come near Northampton for ten years, was little concerned
to spend money upon it, and when the fears and necessities of his
successor led him to look to the defences of even his central towns,
a survey was made (1323) of the castle of Northampton, and it
was found to be in great decay. The great hall, its principal
chambers, and the lower chapel had been destroyed by fire, six
new turrets had been destroyed by the castellan himself in 1307,
the barbican was ruinous, and the estimated outlay needed to
fully restore it would, according to Mr. Hartshorne's calculation
from original documents, have exceeded £2000. It is even possible
that a royal inquisition into its affairs four years later, which
decided that it was in the custody of the sheriff of the county,
may refer to an attempt of the town to get control of the
decaying but still threatening fortress.
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. xxvii
And while its military strength was impaired, Northampton
was about to lose its political importance. The eighth parlia-
ment held here in Edward III.'s reign, that of 1338, was called
to sanction and assist the impending war with France, and ere
it met Edward was already abroad. With this outbreak of what
is well known as the Hundred Year' war, the centre of political
grants change from home to foreign politics. No longer is the
main problem to manage England from somewhere near its
centre, the whole energies of the country were at death grips
with France.
No doubt there had been continental righting under the Norman
and early Plantagenets, but their home politics were of equal
urgency, and called them again and again to Northampton, while
under Edward III. and his successors foreign affairs were every-
thing, and the supplies desired could be better obtained from
parliament called to the capital than from assemblies called to
a spot so remote from the coast as Northampton. Accordingly,
from the time of Crecy. no parliament meets here save one in
Richard II/s reign, when there was peace between England and
France, and for the still more conclusive reason of pre-occupation
elsewhere, the monarchs discontinued their visits either to the
town itself or their forestial seats in the immediate neighbourhood.
Its consequence had depended on its geographical position,
and the importance of that having passed away it inevitably went
down hill.
But though the sources of its greatness were thus drying up,
the decline was in no way rapid. The great religious houses
which had just come had come to stay. The municipality was in
its lusty youth, was growing in strength and privileges, and
became of more prominence in the absence of king and court.
In J335 the town had been granted tolls for rebuilding the
south bridge, and three years later received a charter entitling
it to hold that profitable institution for a mediaeval borough, a
fair, for the adequate period of four weeks in every year. This
may have been an answer to the petition to the Parliameut of
J335 f°r a reduction of the fee farm rent. Fifteen years later
the King assigned his share of this tax to the Canons of
Windsor, to whom the town thenceforward paid it, until under
recent legislation it was paid instead to the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners, as it is to the present day.
XXVlll NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The reign of Richard II. brought with it a new charter (1385)
which confirmed the old ones, and ordered the mayor and bailiffs to
hear all pleas of assize and other pleas whatsoever happening within
the liberties of Northampton, allowed them to keep the assize of bread,
wine, and beer, and weights and measures, and to take cognizance of
forestallers and regraters. This was of high consequence as giving
to the town almost legislative authority over trade matters, and
is the basis of the elaborate trade regulations of which the
customary of the town is full.
Five years previously to this, the last parliament held at
Northampton had met (1380). It is memorable in our history as
having imposed the poll-tax which led to the insurrection of Wat
Tyler, and the one vivid appearance of the peasantry in the
politics of mediaeval England. The local features were the use
of All Saints' Church and the Priory of St. James for the meeting
of the Parliament, and the fact of the King being lodged outside
the town at Moulton, doubtless because the decay of the castle
made it unfitting to receive him.
It was about this time, in 1393, that the first mention of
Lollardy in Northampton occurs, when one Richard Stormeworth,
afterwards M.P. for the borough, complained to the King in
council that the mayor was harbouring a Lollard, and encouraging
the Lollards to preach in defiance of the Bishop of Lincoln
The incident deserves recording, not only for its own sake, but
as the earliest mention of that temper in religion and politics
which has been, perhaps, the dominant one in Northampton in
later centuries.
With the accession of the House of Lancaster, the history of
Northampton becomes almost solely municipal. Henry IV., imme-
diately on his accession, issued to the town letters patent
authorising tolls for repairing the wall, but not till the reign of
his grandson is there any further mention of Northampton in royal
or parliamentary acts. We are justified in thinking that the town
had shared in the tendency of towns generally in the fourteenth
and early fifteenth centuries to increase in wealth and the acqui-
sition of property. Letters patent of Henry VI. in 1331 containing
an act of parliament for the paving of Northampton mention the
principal streets of the town as enlarged in 1300. These letters
patent were followed in 1435 by other letters confirming previous
charters and again in 1445 by a fresh charter giving the important
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. XXIX
additional privileges of the mayor being appointed King's escheator,
and leave being given to the mayor and commonalty to purchase
real property of the value of £4.0 a year in spite of the statute
of mortmain. These privileges were re-conferred in 1452, and in
1459 the town was incorporated, and the mayor for the time
being appointed a magistrate, the incorporation being rather a
solemn assurance of previous privileges than the conferring of
new ones. Thus by the end of Henry VI. 's reign Northampton
had obtained practically full municipal powers. The wars of the
Roses made little difference to its civic career although the town
was the scene of the first decisive battle of the war when on
July loth, 1459, the Earls of March and Warwick, with the
support of the townsmen, overthrew the Lancastrians and captured
the King. Local historians speak of Henry watching the battle
from the hill of the Headless Cross, that structure being one of
the Eleanor Crosses erected by Edward I. wherever his wife's
body stayed on the way from Harby to Westminster, and one
which still stands as a monument not only of conjugal affection and
high mediaeval art, but as. a relic reminding Northampton people
of the period when the town was still one of the chief towns of
the kingdom.
Edward IV., who had the support of the town throughout his
career, issued letters of pardon to Northampton in 1462, for
offences committed in the war, and in the same year confirmed
the ancient charters, while sixteen years later further letters patent
allowed the mayors in future to be sworn in the town, instead of
proceeding to London.
Up to this time the mayor and bailiffs were chosen by the
commonalty, /.<?., by the town at large, and having regard to this,
and to the privileges now freshly given by Henry VI. and
Edward IV., this may be regarded as the culmination of the
municipal life of the town. Its prominence as a royal town came
to a head under Henry III., the general prominence royal and
municipal in the Edwardian period, and its municipal power and
character now. It shared to the full the tendency of the fifteenth
century to develop municipal powers, and take an intense interest
alike in the collection of ancient customs, and the extension of present
rights. It is at this period that the Customary which occupies a good
deal of this volume, was compiled, and that shows more clearly
than would many pages of comment the elaborate character of the
t
XXX NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
town's civic life. It shows, among other things, that the custom
of taking tolls at stations far outside the walls, mentioned already
as giving rise to a royal enquiry in 1330, still continued, and
the town secured the tolls of travellers as far away as Syresham,
fourteen miles south, and Slipton, seventeen miles east. It points
out how carefully the privileges of the town had been used to
give the town full legislative powers in all domestic matters,
and how thoroughly the town, in true mediaeval spirit, looked on
the surrounding country as almost foreign territory, to be traded
with no doubt, but to be dominated in every possible way
to the advantage of the burgesses. The legal notes which Mr.
Green has appended to the Customary, show the existence of
customs which it is reasonable to refer to a period earlier than
the first charter, and it is arguable that the continuance of the
"droit de retraite," for instance, long after it became a fetter
instead of a privilege, may point not only to the early prosperity
of the town, but to its decreasing importance in the later times
when acts of parliament gave freedom of alienation generally.
For the most singular feature of Northampton life in this
fifteenth century is the steady decline of its material fortunes
alongside the greater elaboration of its municipal constitutions.
In 1462, at the very time when new powers are given to the
corporation, twenty pounds of the fee farm rent is remitted for
twenty years, and though no reason is given for this in the
letters patent, it is impossible not to assign it to the circum-
stances specially mentioned in a similar grant a few years later,
of the decay of the town. The truth is that while the town
was still of enough consequence to share and feel the municipal
growth, which is one of the main characteristics of this century
in England, it did not also share the prosperity of so many towns
which marked the age. This, again, was due to its geographical
position. It was not in the position of Norwich or the Cinque
Ports, or Bristol, to take advantage of that economic revolution
of the century which saw England turn' from an exporter of raw
material to that of manufactured products. It had had at an
early period, as has been already seen, a seal indicating it
exported cloth, but it was the towns on or near the sea coast
which reaped the full advantage of the economic change, and
a central, inland town like Northampton was certain to sink
more and more into the background. This is curiously borne
[ISTORY. XXXI
out by the act of Parliament of Henry VIII., referring to several
decayed towns, including Northampton, all of which, save one
are inland.
The first of these remissions of taxation was, as has been said,
under Edward IV. ; the final one was in letters patent of Henry
VIII., in 1514, which remitted twenty-two pounds of the one hundred
and twenty for ever. In the interval between these dates other
important matters had happened to the town. An Act of Parliament
in 1489 had destroyed the old democratic constitution of the
assembly, and placed the government of the town in the hands of
the mayor, ex-mayors, bailiffs and ex-bailiffs, and forty-eight of the
burgesses, chosen in the first instance by the mayor and ex-mayors,
and subsequently kept up in numbers by co-optation. This con-
stitution continued until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835,
and from 1480 till 1660 the same oligarchy chose the members
of Parliament. The excuse for this strong proceeding was the
previous existence of tumults in Northampton and in Leicester, to
which a similar provision applied, and it is true that Henry VII.
was none too well affected to the towns which had welcomed Richard
III.'s democratic policy, but the true cause probably lay quite as
much in the shrunken size and weakened energies of the com-
monalty and the tenacious hold of the leading citizens on corpora-
tion patronage and property.
Six years later a charter from the King gave the new corpora-
tion the right to chose a recorder and two justices of the peace,
with various privileges attaching to them, and with this charter
ends the story of the growth of municipal powers in the borough.
Curiously enough, it is from just after this time that the Book
of Assembly remains extant, and in the second of these volumes Dr.
Cox has illustrated in much detail the civic life of the town for the
rest of its existence.
It therefore ceases to be needful in this introduction to say
much of the general history of the town from this point onward,
especially as the place of Northampton in English history is a
much less important one from the beginning of the Tudor period.
Leland gives a picturesque account (1533) of it, noting that
the older houses were of stone, and the newer of wrood, and by this
time it was sinking rapidly to the level of an ordinary county town.
Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth a new charter,
which enlarged its privileges of the town, and specified several
XXXii NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
fresh fairs, perhaps marks a rise in prosperity. The tendency
appears at this time, and continues through the seventeenth century,
to choose as the recorder of the town some neighbouring great
lord or dignitary, whose actual work would, of course, be done by a
deputy ; and tne custom is interesting as showing the new relation
between the town and the county. It was during the sixteenth
century that Northamptonshire became the home of great families
and the county of famous houses. The large royal possessions in
the forests of the county furnished estates for the new nobility who
owed their origin to Crown favour in Tudor times, and by the end
of this century the large landowners of the county were the
dominating influence, and the county town came more and more to
think of itself — if the expression may be used — as the market town
for the large graziers, the centre of county government, and the
capital in every sense of the county, rather than as the separate
powerful little commonwealth of one hundred and fifty years before.
A careful survey of the parliamentary elections in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and of the list of recorders, shows that the
town was quick to seek the help and patronage of the neighbouring
magnates, in important matters. Even in the famous spendthrift
election of 1768, when the town, as will be seen directly, had the
wide household suffrage, the contest was one between the three
great local noblemen — Lord Northampton, Lord Halifax, and Lord
Spencer — a striking instance of "county" influence. The same
point is illustrated in the offer of the corporation in 1678, when the
County Hall was to be built, to subscribe to it on condition it was
to be erected in the town, this being the exact opposite of the
policy of mediaeval Northampton in getting rid of the control and
influence of the sheriff wherever possible.
This relation of the town to the county is the leading charac-
teristic to note in the history of the town from late Tudor to
Georgean times. Naturally the town during that period calls for
less notice than in the earlier period. It suffices to mention
that Henry VIII. visited the town once, that Elizabeth was here
three times, and that the purchase by James I. of Holdenby House
brought him through the town frequently for some years.
The chief marks of the town's history, apart from its new
relation to the county already touched on, and its purely municipal
life, which Dr. Cox illustrates so fully, were religion and trade.
Northampton, as has been already noted, early showed sympathy
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. XXXlll
with Lollardism, and in Elizabeth's reign it is distinguished for
being the town where Puritan and Genevan influence inside the
Church of England reached their greatest development. Early in
Elizabeth's reign the town had come to have the patronage of the
large church of All Saints', and this took the place of St. Giles' as the
Corporation church, so that the vigorous Puritanism of its vicar had
the greatest significance, and was, we know, supported by the
governing body of the town. This temper continued down to the
Civil War, and the reader of the second volume of these records
will find interesting proof of the rigorous and careful government
of the town by its Puritan assembly during the war. Northampton
was garrisoned for the Parliament under the leadership of Lord
Brooks, and maintained a position of importance in the struggle from
the first gathering of Parliamentary troops there under Essex at the
beginning of the war, to the final battle of Naseby, but twelve miles
away, in 1645. ^ was naturally one of the towns whose walls were
ordered to be destroyed by the first Parliament of Charles II., and by
a curious and almost unexpected result of the Restoration the town
then regained its wide Parliamentary suffrage. This, as has been
noted, had been exercised by the oligarchical assembly since Henry
VII's Act of Parliament, but at the Restoration, the householders
met in the square and returned two members, while the assembly
did the same at the Town Hall. The latter were sure to be
Puritans, and the former in sympathy with the restoration, the
strictness of the Puritan rule in Northampton having, no doubt,
bred unpopularity, and the Cavalier Parliament deciding as was
natural in favour of its own side, by this accident restored
to the town its ancient democratic franchise, a franchise which
after several disputes, was from 1740 to the Reform Bill acted
on without question.
These changes come out of the religious disputes at North-
ampton ; the other important aspect of the town in this period
was its trade. Although not appearing very early in its history
there is reason to believe that its tanners, if not its shoemakers
constituted an important trade at the time of the Custumary.
The latter, however, first show, with something like general
prominence, when 2000 pairs of shoes were ordered for the army
of Charles I. in the Irish rebellion of 1640
A little later the parliamentary army was largely shod from
Northampton, and after this time the town was a recognised
xxxiv NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
centre of the boot and shoe industry. In the eighteenth century
also, it was a depot of some consequence in the lace trade, the
district round, particularly in South Northamptonshire, being
largely occupied in hand-made lace making.
But though the principal market as well as the county town, and
although a centre both of shoe making and lace selling, Northampton
was in this century at the lowest ebb of its fortunes.
The castle, which had lingered on till the Restoration as a
jail, and a place where the court of quarter sessions met, had
been sold in 1678 to a private individual, and was now but a
heap of dwindling ruins used as a quarry by the neighbours.
There were but four churches in place of the nine of the
Norman period, and the great fire of 1678 which destroyed a
part of the town burnt the old church of All Saints, re-built
only in shorn proportions. The corporation property, which had
been considerable in earlier periods, was wastefully managed,
and became considerably impaired in this century, while at some
time about this period the important suburbs of Cotton End
and St. James' End, which had been under the government of
the town, reverted to the county, with whom they still remain.
Yet the political and religious activity of the town retained some
vigour. The spendthrift election already alluded to showed the
keenness as well as the corruption of the town electors. In the nobler
sphere of religious activity the Dissenters of Northampton were
conspicuous, and the successive presence here in Northampton of
Doddridge and the Rylands, with the prominent part they took
in the revival of Evangelicalism made the town prominent among
people of that school of thought to the extent of its sharing
with Leicester the position of a sort of capital of Dissent in
the Midlands during the latter half of the century.
Of the town in the present century only one sentence need
be said. The great development of the shoe trade has made
Northampton again a place of consequence, and has stimulated
its civic life entirely apart from its position as the chief town
of the county. If the local boast be true that there is a greater
percentage of the inhabitants owners of their own dwellings than
in any other English town, it tells of a sound economic basis of
municipal prosperity. The use of machine lace has taken from
Northampton its old consequence as a centre of the lace trade,
and its markets and fairs, though still flourishing, are, except that
POSITION OF THE TOWN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. XXXV
of cattle, scarcely so great in proportion as they were. On the
other hand, in the trade of brewing it has an industry which
does more than supply local demands. Its vigour of political
life has been shown by the choice of members of parliament,
now of this party, now of that, who have been, on the whole,
above the average in individuality of character, and the town itself
grows larger at an ever increasing rate. Northampton is to-day
high up in the second rank of manufacturing towns, and shows also
the usual type of county metropolis. The small Saxon settlement,
the great Norman fortress, the royal town of the Plantagenets,
the vigorous municipal commonwealth, the stronghold of Puritanism,
the quiet county capital, the growing trade centre, all these
succesive phases lie behind, and go to make what Northampton
is to-day. The records of the municipality are therefore of special
historic interest, and show in these volumes a rich variety of material.
To provide a string of narrative on which readers can thread such
of the facts and incidents as they wish to remember has been the
object of this introducton, and to those, at any rate, who are connected
with the town of Northampton by birth or residence, by interest
or sentiment, the details of its past life may be perhaps the
more interesting from the reminder which is here given of
the high national importance of the town in early times, and of
its varying characteristics at different periods of its history.
'HPHE first official notice of Northampton, as of other towns
and counties in England, commences with that wonderful
compilation made by William the Conqueror in or about the year
1086. Thus, although scattered notices of the town and county
will be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other contem-
porary records, it has been thought well to begin this volume with
a reproduction of the portions of the Domesday Book relating to
the Town of Northampton, together w7ith a translation thereof.
NORTHANTSCIRE.
HpEMPORE REGIS EDWARDI fuer in NORTHANTONE
in Snio regif Ix . burgenfef . hntef totia manfionef.
Ex hif funt m . xiiii . uafte. Refidue funt xl.vii.
Preter hof funt m in nouo burgo . xl. burgenfef
in dnio regif Wifti.
Jn ipfo burgo ht Eps conftantienfif .xxiii . domof .
de . xxix . folid: . 7 iiii . Senar9.
Se S Edmundo . i . domu de . xvi . denar9. /^uafte.
$e Burg . xv . dom9 de . xiiii . fol 7 vni .Sen9 . Due ft
At>t> Se Ramefyg . i . Somu de . xvi . denar9.
Atrb de Couentreu . iiii . Som9 de . xii . denar9. Tref ft uafte.
Atrb 8e Euefham. i . Somu uafta.
Atrb (5e Salebi . ii . Som9 fte . xxxii . Senar9.
Comef Moriton . xxxvii . Se . xlv . foi 7 viii . Sen9. Due ft
uafte . De . ix . Somib} haru ht rex focha.
Comef Hugo . i .8omu Se . iiii . Senar9.
Comtafla JuSita . xvi . Somof . de xii . foi . Vna . e uafta.
B
2 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Rofet9 de Todeni . iiii. Som9 de. iiii . foi . Vna . e uafta.
Henric9 de fereiref . viii . dom9 de . ix . fol 7 iiii . den9 /^foca.
Anfger9 capellan9 regif . i . Somu Se qua rex debet hafee
Wiftf peurel . xxxii . Som9 . Se . xxviij . Ibli3 7 viii . den9.
Tref ex hif funt uafte. /""redd . xvi . denar9
Wiftf fili9 bofelini . ii . Se feudo epi baioc9 7 comitifle Judit
Wiftf inganie . i . Soiii de Rofeto de boci . 7 nil reddit.
WiSo Se RainbuScurt . iiii . dom9 de . Ixiiii . Senar9.
Walter9 flantfrenfif . x . dom9 Se . viii .foi . Vna . e uafta.
Winemar9 . xii . dom9 Se . iii . foi . Ex hif . im . funt uafte.
RicarS9 inganie . iiii . Som9 de . iiii . foli3.
Rofet de Aluerf . i . Somu Se . xii . Sen9.
Roger9 de bofcnorman . i . Som Se . xvi . Sen9.
Goiffrid9 de Wirce . iiii . Som9 Se . iiii . foL
Goiffrid9 alfelin 7 RaS nepof ei9 . ii . dom9 de . ii . foi.
Gilo fr9 Anfculfi . iii . Som9 t5e xxxii . Senar9
Gunfrid9 de Ciochef . Vm . «om9 Se . vm . foi. Tref ft uafte.
Sigar de Ciochef. i . Som Se xvi . Sen9.
Suain fili9 Azur xxi . Som Se x . foi . ptin9 ad Stochef.
Anffrid9 de ualbaSon . ii . Som9 de . ii . foi . Se feuSo epi baioc9
Balduin9 dimiS manfione uafta. Lef ftan9 . i . Som de ii Sen9.
Of fen9 gifarS . i . Som Se . iiii . Sen9. Goduin9 . i . Somu Se . xii . Sen.
Durand9 ppofit . i . Som Se xvi . den9 de feuSo Rofcti Todeni.
Comtiffa
Dodin . ii . Som9 Se . xx . Sen9. Vna . e Se Judit. alta de Winemaro.
Hugo de Widuile . ii . Som9 Se xxxii . denar9.
,/^Burgenfef Se Hantone redSt uicecomiti p ann . xxx . life 7 x . foli3
Hoc ptin9 aS firma ipfiuf.
comitiifa ht . vii . life Se exitib/ei9S burgi.
TERRA REGIS
X X X X X
Rex ht in Sm5 de PortlanS . ii . carucataf . 7 n partef ttie carucate .
7 xii . acf pa . Ad ecciam S Petri iacet . i . car9 tre 7 ad ecciam
omiu fctu SimiS carucata . PortlanS cu pto T.R.E. reSSefe xl.viii .
foi . 7 x . foliS p feltrif fomario^ regif. Sup hec debet rex hafee . ix .
life 7 xii . fol . p aliif exitib9 burgi.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
TN King Edward's time there were in Northampton, in the
King's demesne, sixty burgesses, having as many mansions.
Of these, fourteen are now waste. Forty-seven are left. Besides
these, there are now in the new town forty burgesses in King
William's demesne.
In the same town the Bishop of Coutance l has twenty-three
houses, rendering twenty-nine shillings and four pence.
The Abbot of Saint Edmund 2 [has] one house, rendering sixteen
pence.
The Abbot of Burgh3 fifteen houses, rendering fourteen shillings
and eight pence. Two are waste.
The Abbot of Ramsey,4 one house, rendering sixteen pence.
The Abbot of Coventry,5 four houses, rendering twelve pence.
Three are waste.
The Abbot of Evesham,6 one house, lying waste.
1 At the time of the great survey Geoffrey was bishop of the city of Coutance,
in the department of Manch in Normandy. He received large spoils in England,
and in Northamptonshire he owned lands in some thirty-four parishes.
2 Bury Saint Edmunds monastery, situate in Suffolk. Baldwin, a monk of St.
Denis at Paris, was the abbot of this wealthy abbey from 1065 to 1097. He was
in great favour with the Conqueror, who granted a charter to Saint Edmunds. He
owned lands in the counties of Bedford, Cambridge, Northampton, Norfolk, and
Suffolk.
3 After the death of Abbot Brands in 1069, King William appointed Thorold
or Turold, a monk of Fescamp in Normandy, as abbot of Peterborough, North-
amptonshire. During the time he was abbot, the Danes, headed by Hereward the
Wake, plundered Peterborough, and destroyed many of the buildings. Abbot Thorold
died at Peterborough about 1098.
4 The Abbey of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, also owned land in seven other
parishes in this county, and in the counties of Bedford, Cambridge, Hertford,
Huntingdon, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk. Ailsius or Eylsinus was made Abbot
in 1080, and governed the monastery for eight years.
5 The Abbey of Coventry in Warwickshire, held lands in four other parishes
in Northamptonshire, and in Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire.
Leofwinus or Lewinus was the last abbot. He is said to have died in 1095.
6 King William, after the death of ^Ethelwig the Abbot of Evesham in Worces-
tershire, in 1077, granted the abbey to Walter, a Norman chaplain of Lanfranc,
who carried on great buildings at the abbey with the money which ^Ethelwig had
gathered together. The abbey of Evesham only held land at Lichborough, in this
county ; and in the counties of Gloucester, Warwick, and Worcester.
B 2
4 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The Abbot of Selby,7 two houses, rendering thirty-two pence.
The Earl of Mortain,8 thirty-seven [houses], rendering forty-five
shillings and eight pence. Two are waste. Of nine of these
houses the King has soc.
Earl Hugh,9 one house, rendering four pence.
The Countess Judith,10 sixteen houses, rendering twelve shillings.
One is waste.
Robert de Todeni,11 four houses, rendering four shillings. One is
waste.
Henry de Fereires,12 eight houses, rendering nine shillings and
four pence.
Ansger,13 the King's Chaplain, one house, of which the King
ought to have soc.
7 Benedict, a monk of Auxerre in France, was the Abbot of Selby, Yorkshire
at the time of the great survey. He also held land at Stanford ; but these are the
only two notices of this Abbey in Domesday.
8 Robert, Earl of Mortain in Normandy, was the son of Herlwin and Herleva,
and half brother to the Conqueror : to his share fell the largest portion of the spoils
of England — indeed he held land in some ninety-eight parishes in this county.
According to Kelham he died in 1091.
9 " Hugh D'Avranches, son of the loyal Richard, the grandson of the rebel
Thurstan, finds a place in English History as the first of the mighty but short-
lived race of the County Palatine of Chester." He was surnamed Lupus. He held
land in eight parishes in this county, and lands in other parts of England. Hugh
refounded the abbey of St. Sever in the Diocese of Coutance in 1085 ; re-endowed
the monastery of St. Werburgh, and rebuilt the minster at Chester, where he died
July 2yth, 1101, having been professed a monk four days.
10 Countess Judith was the daughter of Odo, Earl of Champaigne, by Adeliza,
half-sister of the Conqueror. She was the wife of Waltheof, son of Siward, " the
strong," Earl of Huntingdon, Northampton, and Northumberland, and left three
daughters, Matilda, Judith, and Alice. The first was married to Simon de St. Liz,
with whom he had the Counties of Northampton and Huntingdon ; the second to
Ralph de Toni, Lord of Flamstead ; and the third to Robert, fourth son of
Richard de Tonebridge. Judith was possessed of large estates in Northamptonshire
and other counties ; and she founded the Nunnery of Elmstow in Bedfordshire.
11 Robert de Todeni, also called Robert de Belvedeir, was a noble Norman to
vrho.m the Conqueror gave several lordships in this and other counties. He founded
Belvoir castle, and the cell of monks there which he annexed to St. Alban's abbey.
He died in 1088.
12 Henry de Fereires, the ancestor of the family of Ferrers, Earls of Derby, was
a follower of William, and was one of the Commissioners for making the great
survey. He obtained the lands of Godric ; Tutbury castle in Staffordshire being one
of his possessions.
13 Ansger was probably the King's private chaplain ; and he was also probably
the Angerus Clericus who held land of the King in the parish of Maidwell,
Northamptonshire.
DOMESDAY BOOK, 1066. 5
William Peverel,14 thirty-two houses, rendering twenty-eight shillings
and eight pence.
Three of these are waste.
William, the son of Boselin, two [houses], of the fee of the
Bishop of Bayeux and the Countess Judith, rendering sixteen
pence.
William Inganie [holds] one house of Robert de Boci, and
renders nothing.
Wido de Rainbudcurt,15 four houses, rendering sixty-four pence.
Walter Flandrensis,16 ten houses, rendering eight shillings. One
is waste.
Winemar,17 twelve houses, rendering three shillings. Of these,
four are waste.
Richard Inganie, four houses, rendering four shillings.
Robert de Aluers, one house, rendering twelve pence.
Roger de Boscnorman, one house, rendering sixteen pence.
Goisfrid de Wirce,18 four houses, rendering four shillings.
Goisfrid Alselin 19 and his nephew Ralph, two houses, rendering
two shillings.
Gilo,20 the brother of Ansculf, three houses, rendering thirty-two
pence.
Gunfrid de Cioches,20 eight houses, rendering eight shillings.
Three are waste.
14 William Peverel was a Norman adventurer of unknown origin, but who was
said to have been the natural son of the Conqueror. He owned much land in the
county of Northampton, which had previously belonged to Gitda, and in the
counties of Nottingham and Derby. He was in great trust with the Conqueror,
and was the governor of the castle at Nottingham. He founded the two priories
of Saint James, near Northampton, and Lenton, near Nottingham, and appears, to
have lived until about 1140.
15 Wido de Rainbudcurt also held lands at Elkington in this county.
16 Walter of Flanders, with other Flemings, joined William before the invasion,
he received lands in the counties of Northampton and Bedford, and was perhaps
the same as Walter de Wahull.
17 Winemar was the chief steward of the Earl of Brittany : he held lands from
the King in Cosgrove and other villages in Northamptonshire.
18 Geoffrey de Wirce was a native of Little Brittany in France, and he assisted
William in the conquest of England. He also held lands at Elkington and Wei-
ford in this county.
19 Geoffrey Alselin obtained the land in this and other counties which had
belonged to a Saxon named Tochi. His estates in Milton, Collingtree, and Rothers-
thorpe, after two generations, went by a daughter to the Bardolphs.
20 Gilo held lands from the King in eleven villages in this county.
6 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Sigar de Cioches,21 one house, rendering sixteen pence.
Suain,22 the son of Azur, twenty-one houses, rendering ten
shillings, pertaining to Stoches.
Ansfrid de Valbadon, two houses, rendering two shillings, of the
fee of the Bishop of Bayeux.
Baldwin, the moiety of a waste mansion. Lefstan, one house,
rendering four pence.
Osbern Gifard, one house, rendering four pence. Godwin the
priest, one house, rendering twelve pence.
Durand the Reeve,23 one house, rendering sixteen pence, of the
fee of Robert Todeni.
Dodin, two houses, rendering twenty pence. One is [held] of the
Countess of Judith, the other of Winemar.
Hugh de Widvile, two houses, rendering thirty-two pence.
X X X X X
The Burgesses of Hantone24 render to the Sheriff yearly thirty
pounds and ten shillings. This belongs to his farm.
The Countess Judith has seven pounds of the issues of the
same town.
X X X X X
The King's land.
X X X X X
The King has in the demesne of Portland25 two carucates and
two parts of a third carucate, and twelve acres of meadowr. One
carucate of land belongs to the Church of Saint Peter,26 and half
a carucate to the Church of All Saints.27 Portland, with the
meadow, in King Edward's time used to render forty-eight
shillings, and ten shillings for the rugs of the King's sumpter
horses. Besides this, the King ought to have nine pounds and
twelve shillings for other issues of the town.
21 Gunfrid and Sigar de Cioches were, according to Kelham, related to each
other. The former held estates in some seventeen parishes in this county, the latter
only in one.
22 Suain also held land in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, where "fourteen
villeins, with the priest and seven bordars, have five ploughs."
23 Durand was perhaps the reeve of Northampton, a most important officer at
that time.
24 The Burgesses or Freemen of Northampton.
25 It is not known where the demesnes of Portland were situated, but they were
probably part of the adjoining meadows.
215 Saint Peter's, near the Northampton Castle, was probably a Saxon church,
the present building is of the late Norman period.
27 All Saints', in the centre of the town, then as now the principal church.
(Roffe of $* (pipe.
HP HE Great Rolls of the Exchequer, or Pipe Rolls, contain the
accounts of the revenues of the crown. These are arranged
according to the several counties, and are little more than the
receipts and disbursements of the Sheriffs.
The first of these documents now existing is that of the 3ist year
of Henry I. After a break of thirty-six years, the series commences
again in the second year of the reign of Henry II., and from this
very remote time is complete until the present day, with the
exception of the rolls for the first year of the reign of Henry III.,
and the seventh year of the reign of Henry IV.
These accounts form most interesting records, and throw con-
siderable light on the customs of the time. The first roll here printed
is, with the exception of the Domesday Book, the earliest national
document of any importance.
As is evident, it is impossible to print in this volume the whole
of these rolls from 1156 to the present time; it has, therefore,
been thought advisable only to give the portions relating to the
town of Northampton until 1189, when the first charter was granted
to the town. The first six of these are printed in Latin and
English, the remainder in English only.
ANNO 31 HEN 1 . 1130-31.
Bvrgum de Norhamtuna. Rofct9 reuell9 reda copot . de firma burgi
de Norhatona. Jn thauro q"t.xx . 7 . x . ti . 7 . xiiij .5.7. iij.S.
Et Jn lifcat conftit . viij . ii . 7 . ij . s . 7 j . 8 .
Et Jn Elemofmif Constit . Monach de Norhatona . xx.s . Et Eifde
Monach . iii s . 7 . viij . ft . p tra fua qa rex cepit infra Caftellu
fuu. Et Quiet9 eft.
Hugo Gubiun . deb . x . m . arg . p plac Duelli.
Ernulf" fit Petri . defc . xv . m . arg . p fuga Monaft'ii.
Et let Robt9 redd: Compot de Auxil burgi de Norhamtona.
Jn thauro . viij . ii . 7 iiij . s .
Et Jn pdon p. t»r . ty . Monach de Norhatona xxxiiij . s . Willo de
Albifi brit9 . ij . s . Et Quiet9 eft.
8 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The Borough of Northampton. Robert Revell 28 renders account
of the Farm of the Borough of Northampton.
In the Treasury £90. 143. 3d.
And in payments made £8. 2s. id.
And in alms paid to the Monks of Northampton 29 2os. And to the
same Monks 33. 8d. for their land which the King took within
his Castle. And he is quit.
Hugh Gubiun 30 owes 10 marks in money for his plea of combat.
Ernulf the son of Peter owes 15 marks in money for the flight of
the Monks.
And the same Robert renders account of the Aid of the Borough
of Northampton. In the Treasury £8. 45.
And in pardon by the King's writ to the Monks of Northampton
345. To William de Albin Britus 2s. And he is quit.
ANNO 2 HEN. 11.1155-56.
Norhantuna . Rot> fii Sawini . red3 . Comp de firma Northant.
Jn th . L . ii .
Et Jn Soltis . Eia . Rofc . L. ii . p br . ty .
Et Jn Elefn noult Const . Milttib3 de Teplo . j . m. arg .
Et ht de Suppl9.] . m . arg.
Et Jd red3 Comp de XL . m . de Dono Ciuitatis . Norft . Jn tR .
lifcauit. Et Quiet9 est.
Northampton. Robert the son of Sawin 31 renders account of the
Farm of Northampton.
In the Treasury £50.
And in payments to the said Robert ^"50 by the King's writ.
28 Robert Revell was probably high sheriff of the county of Northampton in
1130-31.
29 These monks of Northampton would, no doubt, be the monks of St. Andrew's
Priory, which was founded before 1076, and largely endowed bv Simon de St. Liz
in 1084. The grounds of this Priory touched the grounds of the Castle on the
north-west.
30 This Hugh Gubion was the grandfather of the Richard Gubion who in 1200
obtained a grant of the land without the east gate of Northampton, to be held of
the crown by the yearly payment of two shillings, in lieu of all services.
31 Robert, the son of Sawin, appears to have been sheriff of the county from
1155 to 1163, and from 1165 to 1174.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 9
And in Alms newly paid to the Knights of the Temple 32 i mark
in money.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage one mark in money.
And the same renders account of 40 marks of the gift of the City
of Northampton 33. He hath paid it into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
ANNO 3 . HEN . II . 1156-57.
Norhantuna . Robert9 fili9 Sawini . redS Comp . de firma De
Norhant . Jn tfc . L . ii .
Et Jn Suppl9 . xiij .5.7 iiij . 3.
Et Jn Elemos . Const . Militib3 de Teplo . j . m . arg .
Et Jn Soltis . p br . ty . Ei3 Rofito . L. ii .
Et ht de Supp9 . ij . m . arg .
Northampton. Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the
Farm of Northampton.
In the Treasury £50.
And in surplusage 135. 4d.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark in
money.
And in payment by the King's writ to the same Robert £50.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage 2 marks in money.
ANNO 4 HEN II. 1157-58.
Norhantuna .
Robert9 fit Sawini . redd: Comp . de firma de Norhantuna . d9 . C ii no
Jn Suo Suppl9 . ij . m . arg. Et Jn Soltis Ei3 Rofo.qatd . xx . 7.
xvij .ii.
Et Jn Elem nouit Conf t . Militib} de Teplo . j,'. m . arg . Et Monach
de Sco Andrea . xx.s . p br . ty . Et Quiet9 eft.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
ampton £100 tale. In his surplusage 2. marks in money. And
in payments to the said Robert £97.
32 These Knights were probably of the order of Knight Templars of the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton.
33 Northampton is, by the error of the scribe, called a city.
10 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
And in Alms newly paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark in
money. And to the Monks of Saint Andrew 2os. by the King's
writ. And he is quit.
ANNO 5 HEN II . 1158-59.
Norhanton
Robert9 fili9 Sawini reda Comp9 de firma de Norhaiit . In Soltis
p br . ty . Eia Robto qats xx . 7 . xviij . ii . 7 . vj . s . 7 . viij . d.
Et Jn Elem novit9 Const9 Mil de Teplo . j . m . Et Monach de Norh
xx. s. Et Quiet9 est.
Et ja redd Comp9 de CC.fn.de dono Burgi de Norh . Jn th . C .
7 . iiij . H .7 . xiij .§ . 7 . iiijd.
Et Jn Soltis p br . ty . Eia R5b . xxxiij .3.7. iiijd . ad pficiend C.H.
Et Jn pdon p br . ty • Ric de Ambl . j . m. Et deb xxvj. li . 7 vj . s . 7
viij . d.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
ampton. In payments to the said Robert by the King's writ
£gS. 6s. 8d.
And in Alms newly paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark.
And to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And he is quit.
And the same renders account of 200 marks of the gift of the
Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £104. 135. 4d.
And in payments to the said Robert by the King's writ 333. 4d.
to make £100.
And in pardon to Richard de Amble by the King's writ i
mark. And he owes £26. 6s. 8d.
ANNO 6 . HEN . II . 1159-60.
Norh an ton a
Rofr fil Sawini . redd . Comp . de C . li de firma de Norhant . Militb}
de Teplo . j . m . arg Et Monach de Norh . xx . s.
Et Jpsi Roftto Jn Soltis p fcr . ty . C . H.
Et ht de Suppl9 xxxiij .5.7. iiij . d.
ja reda Comp9 de xxvj . H . 7 . vj s . 7 . viij . d de Dono Civitat9. Jn
Soltis p br . 1^ . Eia Rofc . xxvj . li . vj . s 7 . viij d Et Quiet9 est.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100. for the Farm
of Northampton. To the Knights of the Temple one mark in
money. And to the Monks of Northampton 2os.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. II
And in payments to the said Robert by the King's writ £100.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage 333. 4d.
The same renders account of £26. 6s. 8d. of the gift of the city.
In payments to the said Robert by the King's writ .£26. 6s. 8d.
And he is quit.
ANNO 7 HEN. II. 1160-61,
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100 for the Farm of
Northampton In payments to the said Robert £100 by the
King's writ.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And he hath a surplusage
of 335. 4d.
And the same renders account of 160 marks of the gift of North-
ampton. He hath paid the same into the Treasury in two
Tallies [i.e., by two separate payments]. And he is quit.
And the same renders account of 26 marks for the Mint.34 He
hath paid the same into the Treasury. And he is quit.
ANNO 8 HEN. II. 1161-62.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
ampton. In payments to the said Robert by the King's writ
£100. In Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark.
And to the Monks of Northampton 20 shillings. And he hath of
surplusage 335. 4d.
The same renders account of £10 of the Borough. In the treasury
66s. 8d. In payments to the same Robert by the King's writ
£6 and I mark, and he hath in surplusage 4 marks.
Fulco de Lidoyus renders account for the assessment of the Forest
of £20. In the treasury £iS.
And in tithes paid to the Canons of Lincoln 403. And he is quit.
ANNO 9 HEN. II. 1162-63.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
ampton. In his surplusage 333. 4d.
34 This is the first notice of the Northampton mint, although one had existed
in the town from early times.
12 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And in payments by the
King's writ to the said Robert £100.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage 66s. 8d.
ANNO 10 HEN. II. 1163-64.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Savvin renders account of the Farm of North-
ampton. In his surplusage 66s. 8d.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple I mark. And to
the Monks of Northampton 2os.
And in payments to the said Robert by the King's writ £100.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage loos.
ANNO ii HEN. II 1164-65.
Northamptonshire.
Simon the son of Peter 35 renders account of £4 white 36 of the old
Farm of Northamptonshire. He hath paid the same into the
Treasury. And he is quit.
And the same renders account of the new Farm. In the Treasury
^109. 55. yd white.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple I mark.
X X X X X
And in payments to Robert the son of Sawin by the King's writ
£100.
And he owes £8. os. i3d. white.
ANNO 12 HEN. II. 1165-66.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100 for the Farm of
Northampton. In his surplusage £6. 135. 4d.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And in payments to the said
Robert by the King's writ £100. And he hath [paid] in sur-
plusage /8. 6s. 8d.
35 Simon the son of Peter, or Simon Fitz-Piers, as he is called by Bridges, was
sheriff from 1164-65.
36 Coins paid into the Exchequer were generally tested by being melted, and if
not of the proper fineness, the person paying the money had to pay sixpence or
more in every pound : the money was then said to be blanched or white.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 13
ANNO 13 HEN. II. 1166-67.
orthampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100 for [the farm
of] Northampton. In payments to the said Robert by the King's
writ £100.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os.
And he hath of surplusage 335. 4d.
ANNO 14 HEN. II. 1167-68.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100 for the Town
of Northampton, In his surplusage 335. 4d.
And in payment to the said Robert by the King's writ £100.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark.
And to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And he hath [paid] in sur-
plusage 66s. 8d.
The same renders account of two hundred marks for the aid of the
Borough of Northampton to marry Maud, the King's daughter.37
In the Treasury £51. 135. 4d.
And he owes ,£80. 335. 4d..
ANNO 15 HEN II. 1168-69.
Northampton.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of £100 for the farm of
Northampton. In his surplusage 66s. 8d.
And in payments to the said Robert by the King's writ £100.
And in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And he hath [paid] in sur-
plusage loos.
The same renders account of £80. 333. 4d. for the aid of the
Borough of Northampton to marry Maud the King's daughter.
In the Treasury £62. i6s. and he owes £19. 125. whereof £10 are
upon the Moneyers 38 of the same Town who render account
above in the County.
37 The Princess Maud married Henry V. Duke of Saxony, surnamed The Lion.
She died in 1189.
38 The moneyers were the officers or ministers of the King's mint at Northampton.
14 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ANNO 16 HEN. II. 1169-70.
Northamptonshire.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
amptonshire for half-a-year.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same renders account of £100 for the Farm of Northampton.
In the Treasury nothing.
And in his surplusage loos. And in alms paid to the Knights of
the Temple i mark. And to the Monks of Northampton 2os.
And in payments to the same Sheriff by the King's writ £100.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage £6. 13. 4d. which is accounted
to him in the Farm of Higham.39
The same Sheriff renders account of £g. 125. for the aid of the
Borough of Northampton to marry the King's daughter. In the
Treasury 585. 8d.
And he owes £6. 135. 4d.
ANNO 17 HEN. II. 1170-71.
Northamptonshire.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
amptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury nothing.
And in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os.
And in payments to the same Sheriff by the King's writ £100.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage 335. 4<1. which is accounted
to him in the Farm of Higham.
The same Sheriff owes £6. 135. 4d. for the aid to marry the
King's daughter.
ANNO 18 HEN. II. 1171-72.
Northamptonshire.
Robert the Son of Sawin renders account of £100. 55. 2d. white
for the old farm of Northamptonshire.
39 The town of Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 15
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury nothing.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of Northampton 2os. And in payments to the same
Sheriff by the King's writ £98. 6s. 8d. And he is quit.
ANNO 19 HEN. II. 1172-73.
Northamptonshire.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of the Farm of North-
amptonshire. In the Treasury £165. 73. od. white.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark.
X X X X X
Northampton.
And the same Sheriff [Simon the son of Peter] renders account
of £100 for the new Farm of the Borough of Northampton. In
the Treasury nothing.
And in Alms to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And to the
Monks of Northampton 2os. And in payment to the same Sheriff
by the King's writ £72. us. 8d. which came by Robba from the
King.
And he owes £25. 155. od.
And the same Sheriff owes £6. 133. 4d. for the aid to marry the
King's daughter.
William Andeg owes 175. for the mint.
R. Antl the Clerk renders account of £4. for the mint
In the Treasury 403.
And he owes 405.
Concerning the aid to marry the King's daughter.
Regin the son of Urli owes 27d. on the part of six knights.
Robert de Chokes owes 403. for the same aid.
The same Sheriff renders account of 223. id. for the common
assize of Northamptonshire. In the Treasury 95. And he owes
133. id.
ANNO 20 HEN. II. 1173-74.
Northamptonshire.
Robert the son of Sawin renders account of 285. 8d. for the old
Farm of Northamptonshire.
16 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The same Sheriff renders account of loos, for the Farm of the
land which belonged to Hugh Gobiun in Northampton. And of
, £100 tale for the Farm of the Borough of Northampton.
And also in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark
in the Borough of Northampton. And to the Monks of the
same Town 2os. And in the payment of ten Knights 40 residing
in Northampton Castle with the same Sheriff from the Morrow of
Saint Michael last year [30 September 1173] until the Feast of
Saint Peter ad vincula in the following year [i August 1174]
namely for three hundred and six days £153 by the King's writ.
And in payment to one hundred and eight Knights who wrere with
Humphry de Bohun41 the Constable £118 by the writs of Richard
de Lucy.
And he hath [paid] in surplusage £j. js. od. which are accounted
to him within the account of the Assize of Demesne.43
ANNO 21 HEN. II. 1174-75.
Northamptonshire.
Hugh de Gundevile43 renders account for the Farm of Northamp-
tonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of the
Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £6j. 6s. 8d., tale.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple in the Borough
of Northampton one mark. And to the Monks of the same Town
2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in
the Meadow of Kingshale.
And for the corrody of the younger Queen44 for twenty eight days
£30 by the King's writ.
40 These Knights probably formed part of the garrison of the castle.
11 This Humphrey de Bohun is the first recorded constable of the Castle at
Northampton. He was the ancestor of Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Essex, Here-
ford, and Northampton.
42 An Assize held to determine the right of litigants to demesnes or any real
estate.
43 Hugh de Gundevile was sheriff from 1174 to 1177.
44 The corrody or allowance for meat, drink, and clothing for Margaret,
daughter of Lewis, King of France, who married Henry, the second son of King
Henry II. As Prince Henry was crowned King with his father in 1171, Princess
Margaret was rightly called the younger Queen.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. IJ
ANNO 22 HEN. II. 1175-76.
Northamptonshire.
Hugh de Gundevile renders account of the Farm of Northampton-
shire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the farm of the
Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £g6. os. 5d.
And in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple in the Borough
of Northampton one mark. And to the Monks of the same Town
2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the
meadow of Chingeshala. And in the payments of John the Clerk
of E. Queen of Spain45 who abode in the Schools at Northampton
6s. for three weeks by the King's writ. And to Hugh Saloman
I2s. for the armour which he conveyed from Huntingdon to
Northampton by the King's writ. And for conveying treasure to
Woodstock to Geddington and to London 75. by Waleran and
Odo de Fawsley. And for executing justice upon William de
Helford i5d. And he is quit.
ANNO 23 HEN. II. 1176-77.
Northamptonshire.
Hugh de Gundevile renders account of the Farm of Northampton-
shire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £gj. 6s. 8d. And
in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple in the Borough of
Northampton one mark. And to the Monks of the same Town
2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in
the Meadow of Chingeshala. And he is quit.
ANNO 24 HEN. II. 1177-78.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard46 renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
45 Eleanor, daughter of Henry II., who in 1170 married Alfonso III. of Spain.
46 Thomas the son of Bernard was sheriff from 1177 to 1184.
C
l8 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury fyj. 6s. 8d. And
in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple in the Borough of
Northampton one mark. And to the Monks of the same Town
2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in
the meadow of Kingshale. And he is quit.
ANNO 25 HEN. II. 1178-79.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £74. 155. 8d.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple in the Borough
of Northampton one mark. And to the Monks of the same Town
2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in
Kingshale.
And for the works of the King's kitchen and houses in Northamp-
ton by the view of Henry the son of Thiard and of Philip the son
of Jordan £j by the King's writ. And for cloths and for the
use of the King's servants £j. 175. 6d. by the King's writ. And
in his surplusage for the Farm of Higham £j. 6s. 6d. And for
conveying the King's venison from Brigstock to Canterbury us.
by the King's writ. And for the King's works at Silveston i6s.
by the King's writ. And he is quit.
ANNO 26 HEN. II. 1179-80.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £gj. 6s. 8d.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple one mark. And
to the Monks of the same town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Kingshale.
And he is quit.
Northarr
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 19
ANNO 27 HEN. II. 1180-81.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X XX X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £97. 6s. 8d. tale.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And
to the Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingshale.
And he is quit.
ANNO 28 HEN. II. 1181-82.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £24. ijs. yd.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And to
the Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshale.
And for the repairs of the Tower of Northampton47 by the view
of Philip the son of Jordan and of William the son cf Raimond
£64. os. 1 3d. by the King's writ. And he owes £8. 8s.
The same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton for this year. And of 303. for the same mint for half
a year. He hath paid the same into the Treasury in two tallies.
And he is quit.
ANNO 29 HEN. II. 1182-83.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account for the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
47 This tower stood near the Derngate on the south-east of the town, from
whence signals could be passed to the Castle on the other side.
C 2
20 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £62. 55. 6d. tale.
And in Alms to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And to
the Monks of the same town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshala.
And for the repairs of the Tower of Northampton by the view
of William the son of Rain and Philip the son of Jordan £35.
os. i4d. by the King's writ. And he is quit.
And the same Sheriff renders account of £8. 8s. for the Farm
of Northampton. For work for the aforesaid Tower £8. 8s. by
the beforesaid brief and view. And he is quit.
And the same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of
Northampton for that year. And of 303. for the same. He hath
paid it into the Treasury. And he is quit.
Alan de Coventry renders account of half a mark for the old
manufacture in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid it
into the Treasury. And he is quit.
William the son of Remund renders account of 2s. for one mes-
suage in the same Borough. He hath paid it into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
ANNO 30 HEN. II. 1183-84.
Northamptonshire.
Thomas the son of Bernard renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
The same Sheriff renders account of £100 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £94 tale. And
in Alms to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And to the
Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son of Robert
the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshale.
And for working at the Hall of Northampton 35. by the King's
writ. And he owes 635. 8d. tale. The same renders account of
the same debt. He hath paid it into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton for this year. He hath paid it into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 21
Alan de Coventry renders account of 2s. for the old Mint in
the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the same into the
Treasury. And he is quit.
William the son of Raymond renders account of 2s. for one
messuage in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the
same into the Treasury. And he is quit.
ANNO 31 HEN. II. 1184-85.
Northamptonshire.
Geoffrey the son of Peter48 renders account of the Farm of
Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
William the son of Remund and William the son of Alfwin renders
account of £120 tale for the Farm of the Borough of Northampton.
In the Treasury £nj. 6s. 8d. tale.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And
to the Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son
of Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshala.
And they are quit.
The Burgesses of Northampton render account of 200 marks for
having their towrn of the King in Capite.49 In the Treasury
100 marks. And they owe 100 marks.
Brother Alan of Coventry -renders account of half a mark for
the old Farm in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid it
into the Treasury. He is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton. He hath paid the same into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
William the son of Remunde renders account of 2s. for one
messuage in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the
same into the Treasury. And he is quit.
The same Sheriff (renders account) owes i6s. nd. for wastes and
assarts 50 and Pleas of the Forest in Northamptonshire by Alan
de Nevill.
48 Geoffrey the son of Peter was sheriff from 1184 to 1190.
19 This was an additional sum that was paid by the burgesses for the privilege
of holding their Town immediately from the King.
50 Parts of the forest from which trees and undergrowth had been destroyed.
22 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ANNO 32 HEN. II. 1185-86.
Northamptonshire.
Geoffrey, the son of Peter £14. 55. od. white for the old Farm
of Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
William the son of Remund and William the son of Alfwin render
account of £120 tale for the Farm of the Borough of Northamp-
ton. In the Treasury £117. 6s. 8d. tale.
And in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And
to the Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 205. in the meadow of Chingeshala.
And they are quit.
The same Sheriffs render accounts of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton. He hath paid the same into the Treasury.
And they are quit.
William the son of Remund renders account of 2s. for one mes-
suage in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the same
into the Treasury. And he is quit.
The Burgesses of Northampton render account of 100 Marks for
having their town at farm of the King in Chief. They have paid
the same into the Treasury. And they are quit.
ANNO 33 HEN. II. 1186-87.
Northamptonshire.
Geoffrey the son of Peter renders account of £14. 55. white for
the old Farm of Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
William the son of Remund and William the son of Alfwin render
account of £120 tale for the Farm of the Borough of North-
ampton. In the Treasury £uj. 6s. 8d. tale.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple, i mark. And
to the Monks of the same Town 2os. And to Hugh the son of
Robert the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Kingeshala.
And they are quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton. He hath paid the same into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
THE PIPE ROLLS, 1156-89. 23
William the son of Remund renders account of 2s. for one messu-
age in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the same into
the Treasury. And he is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 8s. for a certain purpresture51
in Northampton which Peter the son of Adam holds. And of 4d.
for a certain purpresture which Maud Gobion holds. And of 4d.
for a certain purpresture which Reginald the son of Reimund holds.
He hath paid the same into the Treasury in three tallies.
And he is quit.
ANNO 34 HEN. II. 1187-88.
Northamptonshire.
Geoffrey the son of Peter owes £14. 55. white for the old Farm
of Northamptonshire.
X X X X X
Northampton.
Robert de Leicester renders account of £120 tale for the Farm of
the Borough of Northampton. In the Treasury £nj. 6s. tale.
And in alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i mark. And
to the Monks of the same Town, 2os. And to Robert the son of
Hugh the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshala.
And he is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 6os. for the Mint of North-
ampton. He hath paid the same into the Treasury.
And he is quit.
William the son of Remund renders account of 2s. for one messu-
age in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the same into
the Ir^asury. And he is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 8d. for a certain purpresture
in Northampton. And of 4d. for a certain purpresture which Maud
Gobion holds. And of 4d. for a certain purpresture which
Reginald the son of Remund holds. And of 4d. for a certain pur-
presture which Ralph the son of Meinfelin holds. He hath paid
the same into the Treasury. And he is quit.
ANNO i Ric. I. 1189-90.
Northampton.
Robert de Leicester and Gilbert the son of Durand render account
51 A building or inclosure made to the prejudice of the King, probably being
an encroachment on the highway.
24 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of £120 tale for the Farm of the Borough of Northampton. In
the Treasury £nj. 6s. 8d. tale.
And in Alms paid to the Knights of the Temple i Mark. And
to the Monks of the same town 2os. And to Robert the son of
Hugh the son of Sawin 2os. in the Meadow of Chingeshala.
And they are quit.
The same Sheriff Geoffrey the son of Peter renders account of 6os.
for the Mint of Northampton. He hath paid the same into the
Treasury. And he is quit.
William the son of Reimund renders account of 2s. for one messu-
age in the Borough of Northampton. He hath paid the same into
the Treasury. And he is quit.
The same Sheriff renders account of 8d. for a certain purpresture
in Northampton. And of 4d. for a certain purpresture which
Margar Gubion holds. And of 4d. for a certain purpresture which
Reginald the son Reimund holds. And of 4d. for a certain pur-
presture which Ralph the son of Meinfelin holds. He hath paid
the same into the Treasury in four tallies. And he is quit.
X X X X X
Nicholas the brother of Alan of Coventry owes 20 Marks for one
messuage in Northampton, by the promise of his brother.
Ralph de Glanvill owes 50 Marks which he acknowledges that he
hath received of Samuel the Jew of Northampton who owed the
same by agreement between Margaret of London and j her sons
and daughters.
X X X X X
The Township of Northampton renders account of 30 Marks be-
cause they held Pleas which pertained to the Sheriff by writ
directed to the Sheriff. The same hath been paid into the
Treasury. And [the Township] is quit.
of let (Ricfforb i.
i8TH NOVEMBER, 1189.
'"PHIS charter, the first granted to Northampton, is a very early
one. Even the City of London itself only possesses three
of earlier date. The charter like others of this period is
directed to all the dignitaries of the great national council,
and is almost identical with the charter of the same date, granted
to the citizens of London, except that no provision is made for
hunting grounds for the Northampton burgesses.
The year in which this charter was granted is technically known
as the time of " legal memory " : inasmuch as it was necessary in
order to establish a custom in England to prove that it had existed
from this remote period, or in other words " from time whereof
the memory of man runneth not to the contrary/' This period
has now, however, been shortened to twenty or thirty years.
Text of the Charter.
Ric Si gra Rex Angt Dux Norm Aq't Com And: Archiepif Epis .
Aftfcib} . Com Bar . Juftic Vic . & Omib} miniftr & fidelib} fuif
Franc & Angi . Salt . Sciatif nof gcefliffe Burgenfib} nrif de
Norhant qd mull9 eos placitet ex* murof Burgi Norhafit de nullo
placito . pt! placita de tenur9 extliorib} exceptif monetar &
miniftr nrif. ConceiTim} & eif q'etancia murdri Infra Burg &
Jn Porfoka & qd null} eo£ faciat duellu & qd de plac ad
Corona ptinentib} fe poilint difronare fedfn gfuetudine Ciuiu
Ciuitatif Lon3 . & q3 Infra murof Burgi illi} nemo capiat
hofpitiii p vim ul p lib^atone marefcalli . Hoc & eis gceflim} q9
oms Burgenfef Norhant fint q'eti de theloneo & leftagio p Tota
Anglia & p Port9 marif . Et qd: null} de mia* pecuie Judicet ut
fedfn lege qm hut Ciuef nri LonS & qd: Jn Burgo illo Jn nullo
placito fit mefkinninga & qd hulling femel tafit Jn Ebdomado
26 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
teneat & qff ?raf fuaf & tenuraf & vadia ilia & debita fua Omia
Jufte haiit q'cumq} eif debeat . Et de ?rif fuif & tenur q Infra
Burg funt rectu eif teneat fettm gfuetudine Burgi & de Ofnib}
debitif fuif q accomodata furint apd: Norhant & de vadiif ibiS
fcis placita apd: Norhaton tenean? . Et fiq!f Jn tota Anglia thel-
onen ui gfuetudine ab hominib} Norhant cejit peqa ipe a recto
defec9it jlpofit} Norhant Namift Jn apd: Norhant capiat In fup
& ad Emendacone illi3 Burgi eif concerting q3 fmt q!eti de
Brudtol & de Childwite & de hierefgiue & de Scottale . Ita qft
jlpofit} Norhant ui aliq!f ali} Balliu} Scottale no faciat . Haf
^dictaf gfuetudinef eif gceffim} & Oms aliaf littatef & Iib9af
gfuetudinef qf huerunt ui hut Ciuef uri Lon3 . qu melioref ul
Iib9ioref huer fedm littatef Long . & legef Burgi Norhant Qr
volum) & firm!? pcipim} q3 ipi & hedef eo^ li Omia jlclicta
h9editarie hant & teneant de nol5 & h9edib5 nris reddendo p
Aiin centu & viginti libraf nuo de villa Norhant cu Omib}
ptinen} fuif ad Seacem nrm Jn ?mino Sci Michaei p manu
ppositi Norhant & Burgenfef Norhant faciant ppofitu que
voluint de fe p Annu . qi. fit Jdone} nofc & eif . T . Hug
Dunelm . Johe Norwic . Hut»to Sar^ Epis . Com Albs . Com Wifto de
Arundel . Com Ric de Clara . Com Hamei de Warenn5 . Wal?o
filio Rodt» Dat apd: Sem Edmudu . xviij . die Nouembr p manu
Wifti Electi Elyenfis Cancellarij nri Regni nri Anno P R I M O.
Indorsed.
Jfta carta allocatr. p Johem Peache Maiorem de Ciuitatis London
& Aldermannos eiufdem Ciuitatis Et intratur in camara Gyhald
eiufdm Ciuitatf videlicet in libro cu Ira G folio centefimo Wiiio
de Holbech & Jacobo de Thane tune tempis vicecomitibz London.
Translation.
Richard by the Grace of God King of England Duke of Nor-
mandy Aquitain Earl of Anjou to the Archbishops Bishops Abbotts
Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs and all his Ministers and faithful
men French and English Greeting know ye that we have granted
to our Burgesses of Northampton that none of them plead without
the walls of the Borough of Northampton of any plea except pleas
of outholdings53 except our moneyers and ministers Also we have
Pleas concerning lands and tenements lying outside the town.
CHARTER, 1189. 27
granted to them acquittance of murder53 within the Borough and
in portsoken54 and that none of them make duel53 and that of
pleas appertaining to the Crown they may justify according to the
custom of the Citizens of the City of London56 and that within
the walls of the same Borough no one take hostellage57 by force
or by livery of the Marshall And this we have granted to them
that all the Burgesses of Northampton be quit of toll 58 and
Lastage59 through all England and by the ports of the sea And
that no one of Amerceament of money be adjudged but according
to the law which our Citizens of London had And that in the
same Borough there be in no plea miskenning 60 And that the
Hustings 61 be held only once in the week and that they justly
have all their Lands and Holdings and pledges and Debts whom-
soever owe to them And of their Lands and Holdings which are
within the Borough right be kept to them according to the custom
of the Borough and of all their Debts which shall be lent at
Northampton and of the Pledges there made pleas be held at
Northampton And if any one in All England take toll or custom
from the men of Northampton after he have failed of right the
Reeve of Northampton63 shall take distress thereof at North-
ampton Moreover for the amendment of the same Borough
we have granted to them that they be quit of brudtol 63 and of
53 Freedom from the penalty which was exacted from the inhabitants of a
town or hundred, wherein a murder had been committed.
54 Portsoken comprised the liberties of a town outside the walls.
55 To make duel was to challenge to combat in order to prove a cause.
56 The custom of the City of London, being the first city in the land, then, as
now, established customs for other towns.
57 Hostellage was the compelling of an inn keeper to maintain any person without
payment. The Marshall was one of the King's officers, whose duty was to provide
lodgings for the sovereign and his retinue.
58 Toll was a sum paid for passing over certain roads or bridges, entering
certain boroughs, or exposing wares for sale.
59 Lastage, was a duty levied on wares sold by the last.
60 Miskenning was a mistake in the plea, for which a fine had to be paid.
61 Hustings, a local court held before the reeve or mayor of the Town. This
was a court of record and had existed from very early times.
62 The reeve was the most important officer in a town, being the successor of
the Saxon gerefa or steward. He presided at the court of hustings, collected the
King's dues, and generally ruled the town. The right therefore given by this
charter to the burgesses to choose their own reeve was a most important one.
63 Brudtol, or pontage was a toll for passing over or under a bridge.
28 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
childwite 64 and of heresgive 65 and of scotale 66 so that the Reeve
of Northampton or any other bailiff do not make Scotale We
have granted to them the aforesaid customs and all other liberties
and free customs which our Citizens of London 67 had or have
when they had them best or more freely according to the liberties
of London and the Laws of the Borough of Northampton Where-
fore we will and firmly command that they and their Heirs all
the things aforesaid have and hold hereditarily of us and our Heirs
rendering therefore by the year one hundred and twenty pounds
by tale for the town of Northampton with all its appurtenances
at our Exchequer at the term of St. Michael by the hands of the
Reeve of Northampton And the Burgesses of Northampton shall
make a Reeve whom they will of themselves by the year who may
be proper for us and them Witness Hugh Bishop of Durham68
John Bishop of Norwich69 Hubert Bishop of Salisbury70 Earl
Albrs7i Earl William de Arundel 7* Earl Richard de Clare ?3
Earl Hameline de Warenne 74 Walter the son of Rodbert Given
at Saint Edmunds the eighteenth day of November by the hands
64 Childwite, was the penalty for begetting a child on a lord's bond woman.
55 Heresgive or yeresgive was probably a compulsory new year's gift to the
sovereign.
66 Scotale was probably a compulsory payment for a license to brew or sell ale.
67 This provision imported into this charter all the extensive and valuable
concessions contained in the charter of Henry I. to the citizens of London.
68 Hugh Pudsey, King Stephen's nephew, was Archdeacon of Winchester, and
Chancellor of York; Bishop of Durham from 1153 to 1195. He was buried in
the Chapter House at Durham.
69 John of Oxford, Dean of Salisbury, King's Chaplain ; Bishop of Norwich,
1175 to 1200.
70 Hubert Walter, Dean of York, accompanied Richard I. to the Holy Land;
he was Bishop of Salisbury, 1189 to 1193, when he was translated to Canterbury.
He died in 1205, and was buried in his own Cathedral.
71 Perhaps this was the son of Earl William de Arundel.
72 William de Albiney was born about 1176, and succeeded as Earl of Arundel
and Chichester in 1176, and was created Earl of Sussex 1177, he became a Crusader
and died in 1196. " Erat magnus & fortis."
73 Richard Fitz-Gilbert, the cousin of King William I., the Earl of Clare, Lord
of Tonbridge, and Lord of Bienfaite and Orbec in Normandy, was born before 1035,
and died before 1090.
74 Hamelin, the natural son of Geoffrey Count of Anjou, was born before 1151,
he succeeded as Earl of Surrey and Warenne in 1164, and died in 1202.
CHARTER, Il8g. 29
of William the Elect of Ely75 Our Chancellor in the first year
of our reign.
Indorsed,
This Charter is allowed by John Peeche76 Mayor of the City of
London and the Aldermen of the same City ; and is entered in the
Chamber of Guildhall of the same city to wit — in the Book with
the Letter " G " folio one hundred.
William de Holbech and James de Tame then Sheriffs of London.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment 16 inches wide, and 6^ inches
deep ; the writing is rounded in character, and unornamented ;
the lower fold is cut for three attached seals, but these have now
disappeared.
On the back is written in a later hand : —
" Ric : ius
" 18 Nov : jmo Rici jmi
" Grant to the Burgefses of Northampton of several Priviledges and
Immunitys & particularly that they shall be free from Toll and
Lastage throughout all England and the Sea Ports reserving the
yearly Rent of 120'' payable to the Crown for the same."
"1"
The numbers indorsed on the charters now in the borough, refer to the list of
the muniments made by Mr. Stewart A. Moore in 1864.
75 William de Longo Campo, Chancellor and Justiciary, and Bishop of Ely
from 1190 to 1197. He died at Poictiers, and was buried there in the Cistertian
Abbey.
76 John Peeche was Lord Mayor of London in 1361 ; William Holbech and
James Tame being Sheriffs the same year.
tfycncttv of let
I;TH APRIL 1200.
/~jPHE greater part of this charter is word for word the same
as the last : but this grant contains a further provision for
the appointment of two burgesses as reeves ; and of four discreet
men of the Town to keep the pleas of the crown and to over-
see the reeves.
Text of the Charter.
Carta bvrgensjvm de Norhamton.
J . Dl gra Rex Angi . &.c. Omnib} fidelib} suif Salt . Sciatif nof
gceflifle burg nris de Norh q3 nfts eo£ placitet exr. murof burgi
de Norhamton de aliqs. placito J? placita de tenrif ex?iorib5
exeptif monetar & miniftis nris . Conceflim8. & eif q'etanciam
murd' infra burgu & in Porthibka & qd: nfts eo£ faciat duellu .
& q3 de placitif ad corona ptinentibuf se poffmt difronare sedm
confuetudine ciuifi ciuits Lon3 . & q3 infa. murof burgi nemo
capiat hofpeciu p vi . ui p libatiofie marefcalli Hoc & eif
gceflim8. q3 oms Burgens Norhamton fmt queti de Theloneo &
Lestagio p totam Angi. & port8. Marif & qd: nfts de mia pecunie
indicef. nifi scdm lege qu habuerunt ciuif nri Lon9 tempore
H. Regif patrif nri & qft in Burgo illo in nullo placito fit
mefkenninga . & q3 Hufting femel tm in Ebdomoda teneatr. Et
q3 ?ras & tenuraf & vadia sua & debita sua omia iufte hant
quicunq eif debeat . Et de ?rif suif & tenurif q infa. Burgum ft
rectum eif teneatr sc3m Qfuetudine Burgi . Et de omnib) debitif
suif que accomodata fuerint ap Norhampt & de vadiif ibide fcis
placita ap Norh teneant . Et siq's in tota Angi Thelonen ul
gfuetud ab hominib) Norh cepit poftqa ipi a recto defec^it .
9 Norh namu in capiat ap Norh Jufup & ad emdatione
CHARTER, I2OO. 31
illiuf Burgi eis gcerTim9 q3 sint q'eti de Brudtoll & de Gildewit
& de Yereiiue & de Scotalle . Ita q3 ppofit9 Norh ut aliqjs all9
balliuif Scotale no faciat . Has pdictas giiietud eis gceffim3 & os
alias lit> & lift . gfuetud qs habuerut ciuef nri Lond: . qu meliores
& libiores habuerunt tempe . H . Reg pat'f nre se3m lift . Lon3 &
leges burgi Norhamton Qre volum8. & firmit8. pcipim8. q3 ipi
& Hedes eoz n oTa Jdicta heditarie teneant & habeant de nofc &
hedib} nrif reddendo p arm Cent9 & xx U mio de viii Norhamp-
ton & omib) ptin suif ad seem nrm i tmino Sci Mich p manu
$pofiti Norh . Et Burgens faciant Jpofitu que uoluerint de se p
am q' sit ydone9 nob & eif hoc ms selt q3 ide burg nri p gune
gfiliu villate sue eligant duof de legalioribz & difc^fciorib} burg
ville fue & jfentement eof capitali Jui'tic nre ap Westfn q1 bu
& fidelr. cuftodiant Jpofituram ville Norh . Et fi ammueant9 qdin
in baifta sua bu se gefferint n' p gune gfilin villate sue . volum8
& q3 in eo3 burgo p qune gfiliu villate sue eligant qtuor de
legaliorib} & difcreciorib} hominib} de burgo ad cuftod placita
Corone nre & alia q ad nof ptinent in eod Burgo & ad videndu
qd: jppofiti illiuf burgi iufte & legitime tractent tarn paupef
quam diuitef . T . Willo Marefcall. Com de penbrok Robto Com
Leic . W . Com Sarr & multis aliis . Dat p man Sim ArchTd
Wellefis apud Windlefor xvijdie Ap'lis . anno regni nri primo.
Translation.
A Charter of the Burgesses of Northampton.
John by the Grace of God King of England &c To all his
faithful men Greeting Know ye that we have granted to our
Burgesses of Northampton that none of them plead without the
walls of the Borough of Northampton of any plea except pleas of
outholdings except our Moneyers and Ministers Also we have granted
to them acquittance of murder within the Borough and in portsoken
And that none of them make Duel And that of pleas appertaining
to the Crown they may justify according to the custom of the
Citizens of the City of London and that within the walls of the
Borough no one take Hostellage by force or by delivery of the
Marshall And this we have granted to them that all the Bur-
gesses of Northampton be quit of Toll and Lastage through all
32 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
England and the ports of the Sea And that no one of amercea-
ment of Money be adjudged but according to the Law which our
Citizens of London had in the time of King Henry our father
and that in the same Borough there be no plea miskenning.
And that the Hustings be held only once in the week And that
they justly have all their Lands and holdings and their pledges
and debts whomsoever owe to them And of their Lands and
holdings which are within the Borough right be kept to them
according to the custom of the Borough And of all their debts
which shall be lent at Northampton and of the pledges there
made pleas be held at Northampton and if any one in all Eng-
land take Toll or Custom from the Men of Northampton after
he have failed from right the Reeve of Northampton shall take
distress thereof at Northampton Moreover for the amendment
of the same Borough we have granted to them that they be quit
of Burdtol and of Childwite and of Yeresgive and of Scotale so that
the Reeve of Northampton or any other Bailiff do not make Scot-
ale We have granted to them the aforesaid customs and all other
liberties and free customs which our citizens of London had when
they had them best and more freely in the time of King Henry our
father according to the liberties of London and the Laws of the
Borough of Northampton Wherefore we will and firmly command
that they and their heirs all these things aforesaid hold and have
hereditarily of us and our heirs rendering by the Year one hun-
dred and twenty pounds by tale for the Town of Northampton with
all its appurtenances at our Exchequer at the term of Saint Michael
by the hands of the Reeve of Northampton And the Burgesses shall
make a Reeve whom they will of themselves by the year who
may be proper for us and them with this only to wit that our
same Burgesses by the Common Council of their Town may
choose two of the more lawful and discreet Burgesses of their
Town and present them to our Chief Justice at Westminster
who shall well and faithfully keep the Reeveship of the Town
of Northampton and they shall not be amoved so long as they
well conduct themselves in their Bailiwick unless by the Common
Council of their Town Also we will that in the same Borough
by the Common Council of their town there be chosen four of
the more lawful and discreet men of the Borough to keep the
pleas of our Crown and other things which pertain to us
in the same Borough and to see that the Reeves of the same
CHARTER, 1200. 33
Borough justly and lawfully treat as well the poor as the rich
Witness William Marshall Earl of Pembroke 77 Robert Earl of
Leicester 78 William Earl of Salisbury?9 and many others given
by the hand of Simon Archdeacon of Wells ^ at Windsor the
seventeenth day of April in the first year of our reign.
This charter is not with the other muniments of the borough
and has probably been destroyed. The preceding transcript has
been made from the copy now in the Public Record Office in
London, where it is contained in a roll with divers charters of
other towns, and is referred to as : —
Cartse Antique " G." /j.
77 William the Marshall was born before 1153, he was Earl of Pembroke and
Striguil, Lord of Leinster in Ireland, and Lord of Orbec and Longueville in Nor-
mandy, and he died in 1219. He was "memorable for the great care he had of
"King Henry III., in his minority; and more memorable for the little care that
" destiny had of his posterity ; for leaving his five sons behind him, they all lived
" to be earls successively, yet all died without issue."
78 Robert de Breteuil, Earl of Leicester, and Lord of Hinckley, Breteuil, Paci
and the Honour of Grantmesnil, was born after 1168, and was the Patron of
Luffield Priory in this County, he died in 1206. He was " prcestantissimus comes."
79 William Lungespee, the natural son of King Henry II., was born before 1176,
and created Earl of Salisbury in 1198, he was Lord of Ambresbury and the Honour
of Eye. He died in 1226.
80 Simon de Welles was Bishop of Chichester from 1204 to 1207.
of
6TH NOVEMBER, 1218.
T3Y these letters addressed to the sheriff the King gave direc-
tions concerning the fair at Northampton, and appointed
bailiffs to superintend the same.
Text of these Letters Patent.
D feria Norhant.
Rex Falk de Breant & baift Norhant faim Sciatif nof coftituiffe
dilcos & fidelef nrof Hefir de Pente Audomar & Raet de Nor-
wic ciicum baiftos nros ad cuftodiend! feria Norhant & difponeM
omia q ad nof ptinent in -pdca feria. Et I3o voft mandam9 q3
ad hoc cofiliu & auxiliu quutumcumq po?itif eif ipendatif.T.
Com . W . mar rectore nro & Regni nri ap Weftm . vj . die
Nouembr , Ann . r n t^tio . p ipm Com & dnm P. Winton epm
Et mandatu eft eifd: q3 cofiliu & auxiliu ||!dcif . H. & R. quntum
cumq po?unt ipendant ad capienet Jn feria Norhant Lanaf &
coria & pannof ad opuf dni Regif q3 dus Rex mcatorib} de hiif
fatiffac conpetn?.
Et mandat eft iScatoribuf & aliis exiftntib3 Jn feria Norhant qd
in omib} q ad jldcam feria ptenent jpdcis H. & R. tanq11 baiftis
dui Regif Jntendentef fint & respondentef.
Mandatu eft & omib} mcatoribuf exiftfitib} in feria Norhant q£t
Lanaf coria & pannof q jpdci baifti cape vol3int in ^dca feria
ad opz dni Reg eif Lifcair & fu difficultate Liftent fcitai q3 dfis
Rex de jlcno eo^ eif in fari fatiffaciet copetn?.
Translation.
Concerning the Fair of Northampton.
The King to Falk de Breant81 and the Bailiffs of Northampton
81 Falk or Fulk de Breant was sheriff of Northamptonshire for the years from
1216 to 1224 inclusive. For a short time he was in possession of Bedford Castle.
LETTERS PATENT, I2l8. 35
Greeting Know ye that we have appointed our beloved and trusty
Henry de Pente "Audomar" and Ralph de Norwich82 Clerk our
Bailiffs to keep the Fair of Northampton and to dispose all things
which to us pertain in the aforesaid Fair And therefore we do
command you that ye do in this matter render them whatsoever
counsel and aid ye can Witness William Earl Marshall83 Regent
of us and of our Realm at Westminster the 6th day of November
in the third year of our reign by the said Earl and the Lord
P. Bishop of Winchester.84
And it is commanded to the same that they do render to the
aforesaid H. and R. whatsoever counsel and aid they can to take
in Northampton Fair to the King's use wools and hides and
cloths insomuch as the Lord the King will fully satisfy the Mer-
chants therefore.
And it is commanded to the Merchants and others being at Nor-
thampton Fair that they be in all things which to the aforesaid
Fair pertain attendent and respondent to the aforesaid H. and R.
as the Bailiffs of the Lord the King.
It is also commanded to all the Merchants being at Northampton
Fair that they do liberally and without difficulty deliver the wools
hides and cloths which the aforesaid Bailiffs shall take in the
aforesaid Fair to the use of the Lord the King knowing that he
the Lord the King will shortly fully satisfy them for the price
thereof.
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat : j0 Hen. III. p. i. m. 6.
82 Ralph de Norwich was rector of Stanwick, Northamptonshire, from 1233 to
1238.
83 For Note as to William Earl Marshall, see page 33.
84 Peter de Ropibus Knight was appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1205. He
was a crusader in 1226, when he restored the Church of St. Thomas and the
fortifications of Joppa. He founded a chapel in the church of St. Mary Overie,
and St. Thomas' Hospital, London. He died in 1238 and was buried at Win-
chester.
D 2
of
24™ DECEMBER, 1224.
ID Y these letters, also directed to the sheriff, the King granted
to the burgesses of Northampton the right to levy tolls on
carts coming into the town, and goods sold there, and to apply
the proceeds towards inclosing the town with a wall.
Text of these Letters Patent.
D villa Norhamt Claudenda.
Rex vie Norhamt & oib} de code com salt Sciatis q3 concessim2
burgensib3 nris Norhamt in auxiliu ville Norhamt claudende
ad secitate & tuicione ejusde ville simul & parciu adjacenciu q3
capiat singlis septimanis semel usq in tres annos a die Natalis
Dni anno regni firi nono de qlib} carecta sive carro ejusde
com Norhamt ferente res venales in eande villa Norhamt ibi3e
vendendas unu obolu & de qlib} carecta sive carro al?ius com
ferente res venales in eande villa ibeSe vendendas unu denar
& de quolib} sumagio reru venaliu ibidem vendendar^ pretrct
de sumagio busch unu qua3r & de quolib} equo & eqe & bove
& vacca venali illuc ductis ad vendenS unu oboi & de dece
ovib) vi capris vi porcis venalib} illuc ductis ad vendend: ufi denar
& de v ovib} vi capris vt porcis ufi oboi Ita tn qd: occoe isti2 gcesslois
nre de hujsmodi carectis carris sumagiis eq's eqsb3 bobus vaccis
ovib3 capris vi porcis nicfe capiat8 |}t pdcm ?minu spletu set
stati spleto ?mino illo cadat gsuetudo ilia & penit2 aboleat2 Et
i3o t' vie Jlcipim2 qd hac gcessioem nram clamari facias p tota
baiftia tua & firmi? obs9vari usq ad ?min ^dcm sic ^dcm
est T. me ipo ap Bracket xxiiij die DecenVbr anno code cora
Justic.
LETTERS PATENT, 1224. 37
Translation.
bncerning an aid to fortify the Town of Northampton.
The King to the Sheriff of Northampton and to all the men of
the same County greeting Know ye that we have granted to
our Burgesses of Northampton in aid of inclosing the Town of
Northampton for the security and defence of the same town
together with the parts adjacent that they may take once every
week for three years only from the day of the Nativity of Our
Lord Wednesday [25th December 1224] in the ninth year of our
reign of every cart or vehicle of the said County of Northampton
conveying saleable articles to the said Town of Northampton to be
there sold one halfpenny and of every cart or vehicle of another
county carrying saleable articles to the said town one penny
and of every horse load of saleable articles except a load of one
bushel one farthing and of every horse or mare ox and cow
there taken for sale one halfpenny and of ten sheep or goats
or pigs there taken for sale one penny and of five sheep or
goats or pigs one halfpenny so nevertheless that by reason of
this our grant there be from such like carts or vehicles horse
loads horses mares oxen cows sheep goats or pigs nothing be
taken after the aforesaid term ended but that as soon as this
term be completed the said customs cease and be utterly abolished
and therefore we command you the Sheriff that you do cause this
our grant to be proclaimed and strictly observed throughout your
bailiwick until the term aforesaid as is aforesaid Witness myself
at Brackley [Northamptonshire] the 24th day of December the
said year before the Justices.
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as :—
Rot: Pat: 9™ Hen. III. p. 2. m. 8
of
m-
i6TH MARCH, 1227.
n^HIS charter, which is almost word for word the same as that
granted by King John, is incorporated in the charter of the
2yth Edward I. ; and also in the other later charters which inspect,
and incorporate the same.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied the whole of the
charter in Latin into that book commencing at folio nob,
hereinafter printed. There is also an early translation of the
document in English, written in the same book commencing on
folio I35a.
Translation of the Charter.
Henry by the Grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland
Duke of Normandy Aquitain and Earl of Anjou To the Arch-
bishops Bishops Abbotts Priors Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs
Reeves Ministers and all his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting
Know ye that we have granted and by our present Charter con-
firmed to our Burgesses of Northampton that none of them plead
without the walls of the Borough of Northampton of any plea
except pleas of outholdings except our moneyers and ministers
Also we have granted to them acquittance of murder within the
Borough and in portsoken and that none of them make Duel and
that of pleas appertaining to the Crown they may justify according
to the custom of the Citizens of the City of London and that
within the walls of the Borough no one take hostellage by force
or by delivery of the Marshall And that all the Burgesses of
Northampton be quit of toll and lastage through all England
and the ports of the sea and that no one of amerceament of
money be adjudged but according to the law which our Citizens
of London had in the time of King Henry our Grandfather And
that in the same Borough there be in no plea miskenning And
CHARTER, 1227. 39
that the Hustings be held only once in the week And that they
justly have all their Lands and Holdings and their pledges and
debts whomsoever owe to them And of their Lands and Holdings
which are written the Borough right be kept to them according
to the custom of the Borough and of all their debts which shall
be lent at Northampton and of the pledges there made pleas be
held at Northampton and if any one in all England shall take
toll or custom from the men of Northampton after he shall have
failed from right the Reeve of Northampton shall take distress
thereof at Northampton Moreover also for the amendment of
the same Borough we have granted to them that they be quit
of brudtol and of childwite and of yeresjive and of scotale so
that the Reeve of Northampton or any other Bailiff do not make
scotale We have granted to them these the aforesaid customs
and all other liberties and free customs which our Citizens of
London had when they had them best or more freely in the
time of the aforesaid King Henry our Grandfather according
to the liberties of London and the Laws of the Borough of North-
ampton Wherefore we will and firmly command that they and
their heirs all these things aforesaid have and hold hereditarily
of us and our heirs rendering by the year one hundred and twenty
pounds by tale for the Town of Northampton with all its appur-
tenances at our Exchequer at the Term of Saint Michael by the
hands of the Reeve of Northampton and the Burgesses of North-
ampton shall make a Reeve whom they will of themselves by
the year who may be proper for us and them with this only to
wit that the aforesaid Burgesses by the Common Council of their
Town may choose two of the more lawful and discreet Burgesses
of their Town and present them by their letters patent to our Chief
Justice at Westminster who shall well and faithfully keep the
Reeveship of the Town of Northampton and they shall not be
amoved so long as they well conduct themselves in their Bailiwick
unless by the common council of their town Also we will that
in the same Borough of Northampton by the common council of
their Town there be chosen four of the more lawful and discreet
men of the Borough to keep the pleas of our Crown and other
things which pertain to us in the same Borough and to see that
the Reeves of the same Borough justly and lawfully treat as well
the poor as the rich as the Charter of the Lord King John our
Father which they have reasonably witnesseth These being
40 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
witnesses The Venerable Father Jocelyn Bishop of Bath85 R.
Bishop of Salisbury 86 Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent87 our
Justiciary William the son of Warrin88 Ralph the son of Nicholas
Richard de Argentine our Seneschal Henry de Capel and others.
Given by the hand of the Venerable Father R. Bishop of Chich-
ester89 our Chancellor at Westminster the sixteenth day of March
in the eleventh year of our reign.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough,
is written in Latin on parchment n inches wide and 13 inches
deep. The writing is more regular, square, and upright than on
the charter of Richard. The silk cord for the seal is worked
through the lower side, but the seal itself has long since dis-
appeared. It is endorsed : —
" 16° Marcij 11° Hen. 3.
" Grant of Hen. 3d whereby several priviledges are granted to the
Burgefses of Northampton (reserving the yearly Rent of I2OH
payable for the same) & particularly that they shall be free from
Toll and Lastage throughout all England & the seaports."
" 1226." " 2 "
There is also a copy of this charter in Latin, written on
parchment measuring \2\ inches wide by g inches deep, which was
apparently made soon after the original. It is only indorsed in ink : —
85 Jocelyn de Wells or Trotman was Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury in 1206 ;
he was an exile from 1212 to 1217 for publishing interdict ; and in 1218 when
Glastonbury was restored to the Abbey, Jocelyn resumed the title of Bath and
Wells. He died in 1242 and was buried in the Choir of Wells Cathedral.
86 Richard Poore became Bishop of Salisbury in 1217, he founded the new
Cathedral in 1220, and also a Hospital at Salisbury. He was translated to Durham
in 1228, and died in 1237. He is said to have been buried at Salisbury.
87 Hubert de Burgh the great grandson of William, 2nd Earl of Cornwall, was
born before 1180. He was created Earl of Kent nth February, 1227, was
Justiciary of England from 1215 till 1232, and he died in 1243.
88 William de Warenne the son of Hamelin Earl of Surrey and Warenne was
born before 1181. He succeeded as 2nd Earl of Surrey and Warenne, and died in 1240.
89 Ralph Neville became Bishop of Chichester in 1223; he was Chancellor of
England, and he built Lincoln's Inn in London, where he was buried in 1244.
of
26TH JANUARY, 1252.
"DY these letters patent, the King granted the good men of
Northampton leave to levy tolls on animals and articles sold
in the town, and apply the proceeds towards inclosing the same.
It is similar in character to the previous grant of the 9th Henry
III., printed hereinbefore on page 36, but is directed to the mayor
and burgesses in lieu of the sheriff.
Text of these Letters Patent.
Villa Norhampton Claudenda.
B/ Maiori Burgenfib} ac aliif pbis hominib} quis Norhampton
falm Sciatif qd concedim9 nofo in auxilium uille vre de Norht clau-
denda qd in eade villa capiatis ad emendatoem muro£ eiufdem uille
de qualibet carecta ferente bufcam uenate vnu qa D carecta carecta
blado uenali vnum ot> D quolib} fummagio bufce p ebomodam
vnum ot> D quolibet fummagio fi munf p ebdomodam vnu ofc D
quelib} equo & equa boua & uacca vnu ofo D quolib3 truilell
panno^ venal ducto fup carectam ii defi D quelib} bullione
cordubam venal ii den D quolib} corio equi & eque bouif &
uacce tannato vnu qa D qualib} carecta carcata pifce marine iiii
den D quolibe} fummagio pifcif marim i den D quolib} fummag9
panno^ uenal i defi D qualib} carecta carnib} falfis uenalib}
ii defi D quolib} dol vnu Cin9ium unal uendente in eande villam
ul canfennte p eande ii defi D quolib} facco lane venal iiii den
D qelib} coreo equi & eque bouif & uacce & no tannato vnu
qa D x ouib} cape & porcif uenditif vnu den D x pellib} oum
lanacif & uenditif viii defi D qlib} balello carcata m9candifis
uenalib} ad Jdcam uillam uenientib} vnu ot> D quolib} an9io pond9is
fcilie de centena vnu den D qualib} affifa weyde venditi vnu den
42 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
D quolib3 afco lal uendle vnum ot> D duob} milib} cepe venditif
vnu qa D quolib} qa reid bladi ducto p aqam & vendito vnu qa D
quolib} millenario allecif vnu ofc D qalib3 fumma allij venditi vnu
ofc D qualib} cencena bordi vend q den de qalib3 cencena de lacif
venditif vnu qa D quolib3 carro & carecta vendita viii ofc D
qualib3 mola vendita vnu den D qalib3 peca filau vnu ofc Jn Cui9
duratura a fefto pafch anno &.c. xxxvi p duoi* annof fequentes T
ty apd Seluefton xxvi die Jan p ty
Translation.
For inclosing the Town of Northampton.
The King to his Mayor Burgesses and other his good men
of Northampton greeting Know ye that we have granted to you
in aid of inclosing your town of Northampton that ye do take in
the same town for the amendment of the walls thereof of every
cart carrying brushwood for sale one farthing of every cart load
of corn for sale one halfpenny of every horse load of brushwood
by the week one halfpenny of every horse load of straw by the
week one halfpenny of every horse and mare ox and cow sold
one halfpenny of every truss of cloth conveyed by cart for sale
two pence of every weight of Cordulean leather for sale two pence
of every tanned hide of horse and mare ox and cow one farthing
of every cart laden with sea fish four pence of every horse load of
sea fish one penny of every horse load of cloths for sale one penny
of every cart laden with salt meat for sale two pence of every
cask of ashes or wine coming to the said town for sale or passing
through the same two pence of every sack of wool for sale four
pence of every untanned hide of horse and mare ox and cow one
farthing of ten sheep goats and pigs sold one penny of ten sheep
skins tanned and sold one penny of every boat coming to the said
town laden with merchandize for sale one halfpenny of every
hundred weight one penny of every size of wood sold one penny
of every boat load of salt for sale one halfpenny of two thousand
onions sold one farthing of every quarter of corn conveyed by
water and sold one farthing of every thousand of herrings one
halfpenny of every load of garlick sold one halfpenny of every
hundred of boards sold one penny of every hundred of buckets
sold one farthing of every car and cart sold one halfpenny of
every millstone sold one penny of every stone of flax one half-
LETTERS PATENT, 1252. 43
penny In testimony whereof &c to continue from the Feast of
Easter in the 36th year for two years following Witness the
King at Silveston90 the 26th day of January By the King.
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the
borough. The preceding transcript has been made from the copy
now in the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as:—
Rot. Pat. 36*° Hen. III. m. 12.
90 There was anciently a royal mansion house within the liberties of Silverston,
Northamptonshire. Many of the Plantagenet Kings resided at this lodge, but even
when Bridges wrote all traditions of the building had passed away.
of 39$ genrp m+
7TH APRIL, 1255.
"D Y this charter the King granted to the burgesses that neither
they nor their goods should be arrested for any debts
except such as they were principals or sureties for : and all persons
were prohibited from depriving the burgesses of this privilege,
under pain of forfeiting ten pounds.
Text of the Charter.
Henricus dei gra Rex Angl Dux Hitn Dux Normanu Aquitan
& Comes Andeg Archiepis Epis Abbatib} Priorib} Comitib}
Baronib} Jufticiar Vicecomitib} Prepoitis Miniftris omnib} Balliuis
& lidelib} fuis Saim Sciatis nof concetfifTe & hac carta nra
confirmafle Ditcis Burgenfib} nris Norhampton q3 Jpi & eor
heredef Jm ppoum p totam ?ram & potestatem nram habeant hanc
lit>tatem videlicet q3 Jpi uel eo£ bona quocumq} Ioco3 in potestate
nra inuenta non areftent1 pro aliquo debito de quo fide milbref aut
principalef debitoref non extiterint nifi forte ipi debitoref de eo£
sint comuna & poteftate habentef vnde de debitis fuis in toto uel
in parte satiflac^e poflint & dci Burgenfef creditorib} Eo5dem
debitor} in iusticia defuerint & de hoc rdnabilit9 constare poffit
Quare volumuf & firmit9 jpcipim9 pro nofo & heredib} nris q3
predci Burgenfef & eo^ heredef imppetuin p totam ?ram &
poteftatem nram habeant libtatem predcam sicut predcm eft Et
prohibemus sup foriffeuram nram decem libra} ne quis eos contn
libtatem predcam in aliquo iniufte vexet difturbet uel inquietet
Hiis Teftib} Jofres de Plefletis comite Warewik Ra£to fit Nicfii
Arcaldo de fco Romano Drogone de Barrentin Wilio de Grey
Waukelino de Arderii WiSo Gernun Petro Euerard & Aliis Dala
p manu nram apud Windes septimo die Aprii Anno regni nri
tricefimo nono.
CHARTER, 1255.
Translation.
Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland
Duke of Normandy Aquitain and Earl of Anjou To the Archbishops
Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Reeves
Ministers and all his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting Know ye
that we have granted and by this our Charter confirmed to our
beloved Burgesses of Northampton that they and their heirs for
ever by all our land and power may have this liberty to wit — that
they or their goods found in any places whatsoever in our power
be not arrested for any debt of which they shall not be sureties
or principal debtors unless it happens that the same debtors be
of their community and power having whereof they may make
satisfaction of their debts in the whole or in part and unless the
said Burgesses fail in justice to the creditors of the same debts
and this reasonably appears Wherefore we will and firmly command
for us and our heirs that the aforesaid Burgesses and their heirs
for ever by all our land and power have the liberty aforesaid as is
aforesaid And we prohibit upon forfeiture to us of ten pounds that
any one against the liberty aforesaid in any thing unjustly vex
disturb or disquiet them These being witness John de Plessetis
Earl of Warwick91 Ralph the son of Nicholas Arcald de Saint
Roman Drogone de Barrentine William de Grey Wakeline de
Arden William German Peter Everard and others Given by our
hand at Windsor the seventh day of April in the thirty ninth
year of our reign.
This charter, which is with the borough muniments, is written
in Latin on plain parchment 8j inches wide and 6f inches deep.
The writing is upright, regular and unornamented. It has silk
worked through the lower fold to carry the seal, which does not
now exist.
It is indorsed : —
" 7° Aprilis 39° Hen. 3^
A Grant of Hen: 3d to the Burgefses of Northampton "
91 John de Plessetis or Plessis was the son of Hugh de Plessis, Earl of Warwick,
and was born before 1214. He was admitted as Earl of Warwick in 1245 *n
right of his wife, Margaret de Neubourg, Countess of Warwick. He died in 1236.
of
i8TH JANUARY, 1257.
charter contains new and additional privileges. That the
burgesses were to have returns of writs of all things af-
fecting the borough, that the sheriff should not take distress in
the borough, that the burgesses should have the right to judge
thieves taken in the borough, that strangers should not be joined
with burgesses in actions, that strange merchants should not dwell
in the town in fair time without the leave of the burgesses, and that
burgesses dying in any part of the kingdom their heirs should
have their goods. And the previous grants were all confirmed by
the King.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied the whole of the
charter in Latin into that book, commencing at folio io6a. here-
inafter printed. There is also an early translation of the document
in English, written in the same book, commencing on folio I35a.
Translation of the Charter.
Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland
Duke of Normandy Aquitain and Earl of Anjou To the Arch-
bishops Bishops Abbotts Priors Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs
Reeves Ministers and all his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting
Know ye that we have granted and by this our Charter confirmed
to our Burgesses of Northampton that they and their heirs for
ever may have return of all our writs as well of Summonses of
our Exchequer as of other things touching the Borough afore-
said and the liberty of the same Borough And that they may
answer by their hands at our Exchequer of all debts summonses
and demands touching the same so that no Sheriff or other our
Bailiff or Minister hereafter enter the aforesaid Borough to make
any distresses summonses or other things which to their office
CHARTER, 1257. 47
pertain unless by default of the same Burgesses or their heirs
And that they may have infangthef 93 and that none of them be
impleaded without the walls of the Borough of Northampton
unless of pleas of outholdings or for any trespass committed in
the same Borough unless upon any matter touching our right or
our person And that the said Burgesses shall not be joined by
any foreigners upon any appeals rights injuries trespasses crimes
challenges or demands charged or to be charged to them but
only by their co-burgesses unless for any thing touching the
community of the aforesaid Borough And then in that case they
shall be tried according to their liberties approved and hitherto
used And that no merchant at the time of the fairs of the same
Borough dwell in the same Borough with his merchandize unless
with the license and will of the Bailiffs of the same Borough as it
ought and hath been accustomed to be done in the times of our
predecessors Kings of England and of our own and that they may
make distress within the Borough aforesaid for their debts as
hitherto it ought and hath been accustomed to be done Also we
have granted to them that if any of them wheresoever in our
Kingdom shall die testate or intestate their heirs shall fully have
the goods of the same deceased so far as the said heirs can
reasonably shew the same goods to have belonged to the said
deceased And that they or their goods shall not be arrested
anywhere in our Kingdom nor shall they lose their goods for any
trespass of their servants and that they may use the liberties
aforesaid contained within our Charter whensoever they will
although at any time they have not used the same Also we grant
to them that they and their heirs may have all the liberties before
granted to them by our Charter and by the Charters of our pre-
decessors Kings of England as reasonably hitherto they have used
the same Wherefore we will and firmly command for us and our
heirs that the aforesaid Burgesses and their heirs for ever have
the liberties aforesaid and we prohibit upon forfeiture to us that
any one against this our Grant in any thing disturb or molest
them These being Witnesses Geoffrey de Lezan 9S and William de
92 Infangthef was the liberty granted to the lord of a manor to judge thieves
taken within his manor.
93 Geoffrey Fitz-Roy, a natural son of King John and half brother of King
Henry III.
48 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Valence 94 our brothers Henry de Bath Philip Lovell Master John
Mansell William de Grey Walter de Merton Nicholas de Saint
Maur Walkeline de Ardern Peter Everard and others Given by
our hand at Westminster the eighteenth day of January in the
forty first year of our reign.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment 13! inches wide and 7}- inches
deep. The writing is slightly ornamented, the initial letters are
plain, the initial letter H only being slightly ornamented with
foliated work. A small portion of the great seal of England
remains attached to the silk cord.
On the back is written : —
" 1 8° Januarij 111° Hen: 3UJ.
" Grant of Hen: 3d wher by amongst other priviledges is granted
to the Burgefses of Northampton the Return of all writs within
the Libertys of the Town the Sherriff of the County & his
officers being prohibited from doing any Act appertaining to their
office within the Libertys "
"5"
94 William de Valence, half brother of King Henry III., was created Earl of
Pembroke before Sept., 1251. He was a crusader and Guardian and Lieutenant of
England in 1285. He died I3th June, 1296.
of
6TH MAY, 1268.
IMMEDIATELY after the last charter was granted to the town
in 1257, the Barons' war commenced. This civil war was
terminated by the decisive battle of Evesham in 1265, at which
Simon de Montfort and the barons were defeated. After the
country became settled the King, according to his wont, granted
new charters ; and probably by this means obtained a little money
for his last crusade in 1270. This grant simply confirmed all
the charters previously given to the burgesses by the Kings of
England.
Text of these Letters Patent.
Henricuf dei gfa Rex Angi dom Hibn & Dux Agun omib}
Balliuis & fiidelib) eius ad quof prefentes littere puenerun sait .
Cum ditci nobis maior & burgenfes nri Norhampt habeant quasdam
libertatis p cartas predeceflb^ nro£ regum Angi & nras ac ipi pp?
impediments guerre nup in regno nro habite eisdem liber tatib} ufi
sint minus plene nos eisdem qram facere volentes spalem concedimus
eis q3 licet pp? impedimtum guerre predce aliquib} articlis in dcis
cartis contentis hucufq} vfi non fuerint ad plenu eisdem nichominu9
dece?o vtanf. sedfn q3 in predtis cartis plenius continent1.
Conceflimus eciam eisdem qd: firmam suam eiufdem ville soluere
poilint ad sccim nrm eodem modo & ad eosde ?minos ad quos
firmam illam reddere confuerernt juxa tenorem carta^ nra^ quas inde
habent et villam sua quam dudum capi fecimuf in manu nram
reddidinr eisdem . ConceiTim8 infup eisd maiori & burgenfib} qd! ipi
non diftringant8 pro aliquo debito de quo iideiuffores aut pncipales
debitores non exti?int.Et ido vob mandamus q9 predcos maiorem
& burgenfes contra concelTiones nras predcas non vexetis in aliquo
seu greuetis . Jn cujus rei teftimo" has littas nras fieri fecimus
50 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pacentef . Teste me ipo apud Windeso^ . iexto die maij Anno
regni nri gng* gefimo scdo.
Indorsed.
Jfta carta lecta fint eid
Eccm anno VV & ibid
vre de mannend carta
pofuca fint in liacia
Marefcalcia mii'd anni
Translation.
Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland
and Duke of Aquitain to all his Bailiffs and faithful men to whom
the present letters shall come Greeting Whereas our beloved our
Mayor and Burgesses of Northampton have certain liberties by
the charters of our predecessors Kings of England and our own
And they by reason of the impediment of the war lately had in
our kingdom the same liberties have not fully used We willing
to do to them special favour Grant to them that although on
account of the impediment of the war aforesaid hitherto they have
not fully used any Articles in the said Charters contained Never-
theless hereafter they may use the same according to that which
in the aforesaid Charters is more fully contained Also we have
granted to them that they may pay their farm of the same Town
at our Exchequer in the same manner and at the same Terms at
which they have been accustomed to render the same farm
according to the tenor of our Charters which they have thereof
and their Town which formerly we caused to be taken into our
hands we have restored to them Moreover we have granted to
the same Mayor and Burgesses that they shall not be distrained
for any debt of which they are not Sureties nor principal Debtors
And therefore we command you that the aforesaid Mayor and
Burgesses against our grants aforesaid you do not in any thing
vex or aggrieve In testimony whereof we have caused these our
letters to be made patent Witness myself at Windsor the sixth
day of May in the fifty second year of our reign
Indorsed.
This Charter was read at the Exchequer in the fifty fifth year
and there a writ for maintaining the Charter was placed upon the
file of the Marshalsea of the same year
LETTERS PATENT, 1268. 51
This document, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment yi inches wide and 5! inches
deep ; the writing is small and regular, but without any attempt
at ornamentation. A small portion of the great seal of England
remains attached to the silk cord.
On the back is written : —
"6° Maij 52° Hen: 3tij
" A grant of Hen: 3d to the Mayor and Burgefses of North-
ampton."
-Hen. 3."
ffgfl
A copy also exists in the Public Record Office, where it is
referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: 52*° Hen. III. m. /;.
of 52H& gentry m+
6TH MAY, 1268.
PHIS grant, which bears the same date as the previous one, is
a general pardon to the Mayor and men of Northampton for
their share in the rebellion as before mentioned, on condition that
they should behave themselves well in the future.
Text of these Letters Patent.
Henricus dei gra Rex Angt Dus Hibn & Dux Aguns omnib3
Balliuis & fidelibus suis ad quos Jfentes littere puenerint salt .
Volentes maiori & probis Hominib} nris Norhampt gram facere
spalem remifimus & pdonamiu" eisdem & toti comminati ville
eiusdem omeni indignatoem & animi rancorem quos erga ipos
concepe ramus occasione decentonis ville fire Norhapton cont nos
& captonis eiufdem &etiam occafionetrarifgreffushuiufmodi qucum in
nobif eft similiter perdonammuf & ipos ad gram & patem nrafn
admifimus nolentes q3 ipi p nos heredes nros Jufticiarios balliuos seu
alios miniftros nros occafione predta deceto gra uent in aliquo
E 2
52 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
seu moleftent" . Jta in q3 ftent recto in curia nra si gius de
?nfgreflionib3 aliquib} nerfus eos loqui voluerit & erga nos &
heredes nrds bene & fidelit8 se habeant in futurum . Jn cuiuf rei
teftim has lit?as nras fieri fecimuf p atntef . Tefte me ipo apud
Windes fexto die Maij Anno regni nri gng gefimo fecundo
Translation.
Henry by the grace of God King of England Duke of Ireland
and Duke of Aquitain to all his Bailiffs and faithful men to whom
these present letters shall come greeting We desire to make
special remission and pardon to the Mayor and honest men of
our Town of Northampton and to the whole of the commonalty of
the same town of all indignation and rancor of mind which we had
conceived against them on the occasion of the detention of our
Town of Northampton against us and the taking of the same and
also by occasion of trespasses and excesses if they shall have
committed any at the time of the disturbances in our Kingdom
and we likewise as much as is in us have pardoned them those
trespasses and excesses and have admitted them to our grace and
peace Not willing that they nor their heirs by us our Justiciaries
Bailiffs and other Ministers of ours by occasion aforesaid shall be
oppressed or molested So nevertheless that they shall stand
to judgement in our Court if anyone shall wish to speak against
them concerning the aforesaid transgressions and that they shall
behave themselves well and faithfully to us in future In testimony
whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent
Witness myself at Windsor the 6th day of May in the fifty second
year of our reign
This document, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment 7^ inches wide and 5 inches
deep. Attached to the silk cord is a portion of the great seal of
England in green wax.
On the back is written :—
« Hen. 3.
" pardon "
"7"
of
m+
i5TH MARCH, 1270.
*DY virtue of this grant the burgesses were enabled to keep
- their dogs in the town and suburbs without expeditating or
lawing 95 them : a privilege much appreciated.
In the Liber Custumarum, folio 31 b., a provision will be found
for dogs to be kept in a leash whilst in the town unless they
were quiet.
Text of these Letters Patent.
P. Burgenfib} Norht.
E? omnib} &.c. Salm . Cum Burgenfes nri Norhpt ab antique
quiet9 efle confuen9int de expeditacoe Canu suo^ tarn in Suburbio
eiufdem qm infa eandem villam volentes eifdem Burgenfib} qram
facere specialem conceffimus eis p no & hres q3 ipi Burgenfes &
eo£ homines imppetuu sint quiti de expeditacde canu suo^ tarn in
Suburbio predce ville qa infra eandem villam Ed qS quieti sunt de
fine et mifericordia si que ad nos vel hedes nros rac5e huiufmodi
expeditacoes poffent ptin9e . Jn cui9 &.c . T . ty apud Weftmon xv
die Marc .
Translation.
For the Burgesses of Northampton.
The King to all &c Greeting Since the burgesses of our town
of Northampton have been used of old to walk freely with their
dogs as well in the suburbs as within the town itself We
willingly grant special permission to the said burgesses both for
95 Under the Forest laws dogs were required to be expeditated or lawed by
having the balls of their feet cut out, or in the case of a mastiff, the removal
of the three claws of the forefoot on the right side, in order that it might
be impossible for them to run game.
54 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ourselves and heirs that the burgesses themselves and their men
may for ever freely walk with their dogs both in the suburbs of
the said town and within the town itself and that they may be
held free from any fine or punishment that might pertain to us
or our heirs by any such action In testimony &c Witness the
King at Westminster the I5th day of March
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat : 5/° Hen. III., m. 19.
tybttnt of 13^ (Kb war* i+
STH MAY, 1284.
/~PHIS grant is very much on the same lines as the previous
grants of the gth and 36th Henry III., hereinbefore printed.
The King giving the burgesses leave to levy tolls on goods sold
there for the term of two years, and to apply the proceeds towards
paving the town.
Text of these Letters Patent.
D pauimento Northt.
ty . majori & baftis suis Norht saitm . Sciatis q3 concessim9
voft in auxiliu ville ure paviendo qd a festo Scl Johls Bapt anno
regni nri ?ciodecimo usq3 ad finem duo£ anno£ pxio sequenciu
complete^ capiatis in eadem villa consuetudies subscriptas videlt
de qualibet carectata bladi venal unu denar D qualibet carecta
ferente piscem venalem unu den De quolibet trussello panno^
venaliu ducto p carectam unu den De qual} carecta ferente coria
equo^ & equa£ bou & vacca^ p ebdomo3 unu den D quolibet dolio
vini venal unu den D quob} sacco lane venal unu den D quob}
sumag panni seu aliar^ m9candisa£ unu obolu De viginti
ovib3 ul porcis vend unu den De viginti vellerib} vend: unu obolu
LETTERS PATENT, 1284. 55
D quob} corio equi vi eque bovis vl vacce frisco salito aut tannato
ven unu quadrantem D centena pelliu oviu lanata^ unu obolu .
Et Is vofc mandam2 qd: dcam consuetudiem usq3 ad fine ?mini pctci
capiatis sicut jkem est Complete autem t9mino flco^ duo^ anno£
Sea cons pen it9 cesset & deleat9 . In euj9 &c . T . ty . Apud . Westm
viij . die Maij .
Translation.
Concerning Paviage for Northampton.
The King to his Mayor and Bailiffs of Northampton Greeting
Know ye that we have granted to you in aid of paving your Town
that ye may from the Feast of St. John the Baptist in the I3th
year of our reign [2gth August 1285] unto the end of two years
next following to be completed take in the same town the customs
underwritten namely of every cart load of corn for sale one penny
of every cart conveying fish for sale one penny of every truss of
cloth carried for sale by cart one penny of every cart carrying
hides of horses and mares oxen and cows for sale by the week
one penny of every cask of wine for sale one penny of every
sack of wool for sale one penny of every load of cloth or other
merchandizes one halfpenny of twenty sheep or pigs for sale one
penny of twenty fleeces for sale one halfpenny of every hide of
horse or mare ox or cow fresh salted or tanned for sale one
farthing of a hundred of tanned sheep skins one halfpenny And
therefore we do command you that ye do take the said customs
unto the end of the aforesaid term as is aforesaid and that the
term of the said two years being ended the said customs do
wholly cease and be abolished In testimony whereof &c Witness
the King at Westminster the 8th day of May
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: ijio Ed. I. m. 21.
of
MAY, 1299.
PHIS inspecimus charter, which incorporates and confirms the
charters of the nth and 4ist Henry III., gave the burgesses
power to choose a mayor and two bailiffs every year.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied the whole of
this charter in Latin into that book, commencing at folio iO5a,
hereinafter printed. There is also an early translation of the
document in English written in the same book, commencing on
folio i35a.
Translation of the Charter.
[EJdward by the grace of God King of England and France Lord
of Ireland and Duke of Aquitain to the Archbishops Bishops
Abbotts Priors Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Reeves Ministers
and all his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting We have inspected
the charter which the Lord Henry of famous memory formerly
King of England our father made to the Burgesses of North-
ampton in these words Henry by the grace of God [and so forth,
repeating the whole of the original charter of iith Henry III.,
i6th March, 1227, printed before at page 38.] Also we have
inspected a certain other charter which our aforesaid Father
likewise made to the Burgesses aforesaid in these words Henry by
the grace of God [and so forth, repeating the whole of the original
charter of 4ist Henry III., i8th January, 1257, printed before at
page 46.] And we the grants aforesaid holding firm and valid the
same for us and our heirs as much as in us lies do grant and con-
firm to the aforesaid burgesses their heirs and other their successors
burgessses of the same town for ever as the charters aforesaid
reasonably testify Also we have granted for us and our heirs to the
CHARTER, 1299. 57
burgesses aforesaid that they their heirs and successors aforesaid
every year for ever at the Feast of Saint Michael may choose one
Mayor and two Bailiffs of themselves and him whom they shall so
choose as Mayor they shall present at our Exchequer within eight
days of the same feast who then there shall take an oath of those
things which pertain to the office of Mayoralty of the town afore-
said faithfully to be executed And which Mayor and Bailiffs shall
hold and execute all pleas touching the liberty of the town afore-
said as by the Bailiffs of the same town in times past it hath
been accustomed to be done These being witnesses The Venerable
Fathers A Bishop of Durham % J Bishop of Winchester 97 S Bishop
of Salisbury98 Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln99 Guy Earl of
Warwick100 Otto de Grandison Walter de Beauchamp Steward of
our Household William le Brown Peter de Tatynton and others
Given by our hand at Canterbury the 2yth day of May in the
twenty-seventh year of our reign.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, 19 inches wide, and ijj inches
deep, the writing is unornamented, and though a space has been
left for the first letter of Edwardus it has never been filled in.
Almost the whole of the great seal of England remains attached
to the silk cords.
96 Anthony Bek, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was Bishop of Durham in 1284. He
greatly enlarged Auckland Castle, Bernard Castle, and other places. He died in 1311.
97 John de Pontissard became Bishop of Winchester in 1280. He founded the
college of St. Mary of Hungary, in Winchester. He died in 1305, and was buried
at Winchester.
98 Simon of Ghent became Bishop of Salisbury in 1297, and gave citizens licence
to fortify that city with wall and ditch. According to Leland he was a prelate of
considerable learning. He died in 1315.
99 Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury, was born about 1250. He
occupied many important posts in England, being in 1310 Guardian and Lieutenant
of England. He was twice married, and died in 1311. The earl was " Strenuus
" in militia, maturus in consiliis."
100 Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and a Lord Marcher of Wales, was
born in 1270. He was knighted by the King on the 25th March, 1296, and
succeeded as second Earl of Warwick in 1298. He died in 1315. He was said to
have been " miles severissimus."
5§ NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
On the back is written : —
" 27° Maij 27° Edri jmi
" This Charter of EdwS the first whereby two Charters of Henry
"38 are confirmed & fresh priviledges granted (viz) That the
" Burgefses of Northampton for the future shall elect a Mayor &
" 2 Bailiffs annually at the ffeast of St. Michael."
11311
Better 0 (polenl of 39$ &bwarb i+
4TH OCTOBER, 1301.
'T^HIS grant is similar to, but more extensive than, the previous
grant of gth Henry III., and also for a longer term.
Text of these Letters Patent.
Muragium Norhampton.
ty . majori baftis & pbis h5ib} ville sue Norhampton saitm
Sciatis q3 concessims9 vol5 in auxiliu ville jldce claudende ad securi-
tatem & tuicoem ejusde ville & pcui adjacenciu qft a die confeccois
jlsenciu usq5 ad finem quinq} anno^ pxio sequenciu completo^
capiatis in eadem villa consuetudines subscptas videit de quolibet
sumagio bladi ven cuj9cumq5 gen9is sit aut brasei unu quadr' De
quolibet equo & equa bove & vacca ven unu obolu De quolibet
corio equi & eque bovis & vacce frisco salito aut tannato ven unu
quadr' De quinq baconib} ven unu obolu De decem pvis ven unu
obolu De decem ovib} caprs & porcis ven unu den De decem
vellerib} ven unu obolu De qualibet centena pelliu oviu lanuta^
& capr£ ven unu den De qualibet centena pelliu agno^ caprolo£
lepo£ cuniculo^ vulpiu cato^ & squirrello^ ven unu obolu De
qualibet centena grisei opis ven sex den De quolibet qrtio salis
ven unu quadr' De quolibet sumagio panni ven unu obolu De
quolibet panno integro vend: valoris qradraginta solid: unu obolu
De quolibet truflello panno£ ven ducto p carectam tres den De
LETTERS PATENT, 1301. 59
qualibet centena panno^ de Wurthstede ven duos den De quolibet
panno de wurthstede qui vocat* coverlit valoris quadraginta solift
ven unu den De qualibet centena linee tele vend: unu obolu De
qualibet centena linee tele de Aylesham ven unu den De quolibet
chef de cendallo afforciato ven unu den & de alio cendallo unu
obolu De qalibet centena milvelli saliti aut duri piscis ven duos
den De qlibet carectata piscis marini vend! quatuor den De quolibet
sumagio piscis marini venS unu obolu De quolibet salmone ven
unu quadr' De qlibet duodena lampreda^ ven unu den De quolibet
dolio de sturjoun ven unu obolu De quolibet miliari allecis ven
unu quadr' De quolibet sumagio cin9um ven unu obolu De q°libet
sumagio men" ven unu denar' de quolibet sacco lane ven duos den
De qualibet carectata tanni ven p ebdomodam unu den De av9io
ponderis sciit de centena unu den De quolibet pisa cepi & uncti
ven unu den De quolibet qrtr' waide ven duo^ den De duobj
miliarib) allei aut cepax ven unu obolu de qualibet bala cordewanni
ven tres den De "qualibet centena bordi ven unu obolu De qualibet
mola veii unu obolu De qualibet centena fagoto^ ven unu quadr'
De qualibet carectata busce aut maeremij ven p ebdomodam unu
obolu De qualibet centena stagni eris & cupri ven duos den De
quolibet truflello cujuscuq} m9cimonij ven excedentis valorem decem
solido^ unu obolu De quolibet dolio vini ven tres obolos De quolibet
m9candisa ven hie no noiata valoris qsnq3 solidox & ultu unu quadr'
Et ideo vofc mandam9 q3 Jdcasconsuetudines usq3 ad finem jpdco£
qsuq£ anno^ capiatis sicut j^dcm est complete aute ?mino illo dee
consuetudines penit9 ceffent & deleant' In cuj9 &c p pdcos quinq3
annos duratur'T ty apud Donepas iiij Octofcr p billam de sccis
Translation.
Concerning Murage for the town of Northampton.
The King to the Mayor Bailiffs and good men of his town of
Northampton Greeting Know ye that we have granted to you in
aid of inclosing the aforesaid town for the security and defence
of the same town and of the parts adjacent that ye may from the
day of the making of these presents to the end of five years next
following to be completed take in the same town the customs
underwritten namely for every horse load of corn for sale of what-
soever kind it be or of barley one farthing for every horse and
60 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
mare ox and cow for sale one halfpenny for every hide of horse
and mare ox and cow fresh salted or tanned for sale one farthing
for five hogs for sale one halfpenny for ten little hogs for sale one
halfpenny for ten sheep goats and pigs for sale one penny for ten
fleeces for sale one halfpenny for ever hundred of tanned skins of
sheep and goats for sale one penny for every hundred of skins of
lambs kids hares rabbits foxes cats and squirrels for sale one
halfpenny for every hundred of greywerk for sale sixpence for
every quarter of salt for sale one farthing for every horse load of
cloth for sale one halfpenny for every entire cloth for sale of the
value of forty shillings one halfpenny for every truss of cloth for
sale conveyed by a cart three pence for every hundred of cloths of
worsted for sale two pence for every cloth of worsted called
coverlet of the value of forty shillings for sale one penny for every
hundred of linen for sale one halfpenny for every hundred of linen
of Aylesham for sale one penny for every piece of thin silk worked
for sale one penny and for other thin silk one halfpenny for every
hundred of salt mullet or hard fish for sale two pence for every
cart load of sea fish for sale one halfpenny for every salmon for
sale one farthing for every dozen of lampreys for sale one penny for
every cask of sturgeon for sale one halfpenny for every thousand
of herrings for sale one farthing for every horse load of ashes for
sale one halfpenny for every horse load of honey for sale one
farthing for every sack of wool for sale two pence for every cart
load of tan by the week one penny for ox cart load or hundred
weight one penny for every stone of fat and tallow for sale one
penny for every quarter of wood for sale two pence for two thousand
of garlick or onions for sale one halfpenny for every bale of prepared
leather for sale three pence for every hundred of boards for sale
one halfpenny for every millstone for sale one halfpenny for every
hundred of faggots for sale one farthing for every cart load of brush-
wood or timber for sale by the week one halfpenny for every
hundred-weight of tin brass and copper for sale twopence for every
truss of whatsoever merchandize for sale exceeding the value of
ten shillings one halfpenny of every cask of wine for sale three
half-pence for every merchandize for sale not here mentioned of the
value of five shillings and upwards one farthing And therefore we
do command you that ye do take the aforesaid customs unto the
end of the aforesaid five years as is aforesaid and that the said
term being ended the said customs do utterly cease and be abolished
LETTERS PATENT, 1301. 6 1
In testimony whereof &c. to continue for the aforesaid five years
Witness the King at Donypas the 4th day of October
By Bill of the Exchequer
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the Borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat : 2gno Ed. I. m.6.
of
3RD EDWARD III.
n^HIS presentment against the bailiffs of Northampton for taking
unlawful tolls is here printed, because it contains the names of
many of the inhabitants of the town ; and also because it shows how
causes were tried by the King's justiciaries, and how the sheriff
was made responsible for the appearance of the defendants.
Translation.
Pleas of the Crown holden at Northampton before Geoffry le
Scrop Lambert de Packingham John de Cambridge Thomas de
Luthe and Thomas de Radeclive the Justices itinerant of our Lord
the King there on the Monday next after the Feast of All Saints
in the 3rd year of the reign of King Edward the Third after the
Conquest. [Monday 5th Nov 1330]
The Jury present that John Hochecote Henry de Helidon 101
Adam de Cotesbroke102 Henry Roger and Pentecost le Deystere
101 Henry de Helidon, Helliden, or Helyden, was one of the members for
Northampton, at the parliaments held at York in 6th Edward III., and again at
York the next year.
102 Adam de Cotesbroke was one of the members for the town at the parliaments
held at Westminster in 6th Edward II., at New Sarum in 2nd Edward III., at
Westminster again in 6th Edward III.
62 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
the Bailiffs of the Town of Northampton take by extortion from
all persons coming to the Town of Northampton to sell straw
trusses of straw to cover the Kingsbroth against Fair times as
well within fair times as without And that the said John Henry
Adam Henry and Pentecost take unjust Tolls at all times of the
year from all persons buying or selling cattle whereas nothing
used to be taken out of fair time and then from dealers only and
not from those who bought cattle for stock And they took from
Thomas de Skalford who sold one ox a penny likewise from the
purchaser thereof they took toll to the great oppression of the people
Therefore let the Sheriff be commanded that he do cause them
to come &c Afterwards came the aforesaid John de Hochecote
and Adam de Cotesbroke and could not deny the aforesaid
trespasses presented against them and made fine with the Lord
the King for all trespasses against them presented each of them
at half a mark &c as appeareth amongst the presentments of
the township of Northampton &c Afterwards came the aforesaid
Henry Henry and Pentecost and made fine for all trespasses &c
as appeareth amongst the presentments of Northampton.
This record is not with the muniments of the borough. The
preceding trancript has been made from the copy now in the Public
Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Pleas of the Crown in the County of Northampton a°. j . Ed . Ill .
Translation.
Pleas of the Crown holden at Northampton before Geoffry le
Scrop Lambert de Packingham John de Cambridge Thomas de Luthe
and Thomas de Radeclive the Justices itinerant of our Lord the King
there on the Monday next after the Feast of All Saints in the 3rd
year of the reign of King Edward the Third after the Conquest
Concerning new Customs &c The Jury present that Henry Roger
and other Bailiffs of the Town of Northampton have newly levied a
certain new custom in the Town of Slipton 103 which is fifteen miles
distant from the aforesaid Town of Northampton namely of taking
from every cart laden with wool wax and other merchandizes or goods
whatsoever there passing one penny and from every horse load one
103 Slipton, a small Northamptonshire village, situate three miles from Thrapston,
and six miles from Kettering.
PLEAS OF THE CROWN. 63
farthing to great oppression of the people &c they know not by what
warrant &c Afterwards came the aforesaid Bailiffs and many others
of the Commonalty of the aforesaid Town and they say that the
custom whereof mention is made in the presentment is a toll per-
taining to the Farm of the King's Town of Northampton and that
the Lord the King Henry great grandfather of the Lord the now
King during the time whilst the Town of Northampton was in
his hands was seised of such like toll to be there taken and
likewise the said Bailiffs from the time when they took the
aforesaid Town at farm And they say that they receive the
aforesaid Tolls at Slipton which pertain to the aforesaid Farm
from carts and laden horses which ought to pass with their
merchandizes through the Town of Northampton for which they
ought to take Toll in the Town of Northampton and not other-
wise and they pray that these things may be enquired of by
the County And one William de Tichmerch saith for the
King's people that the aforesaid Bailiffs receive there by their
servants thereunto deputed the aforesaid new custom from all
carts and laden horses as well of the neighbours there passing
towards Leicester or Rothwell or elsewhere to the north parts
and likewise of those passing there towards the south with
their corn and other things whatsoever as of those passing there
with merchandizes And this he offers to prove &c Therefore
let a Jury thereupon come And the Jury say upon their oath
that the aforesaid Henry Roger and other the Bailiffs of the
Town of Northampton have during their times by their servants
taken the aforesaid customs from the carts and laden horses as
well of the neighbours as of strangers there passing with their
goods and merchandizes at the will of the said servants There-
fore the said Henry is in mercy And it is commanded to the
said Bailiffs that they do in no wise take the aforesaid customs
from the neighbours or others there passing but only from those
who avoid the aforesaid Town of Northampton to evade the
custom or toll of right due by reason of the liberty of the
aforesaid Town on peril that shall ensue thereon.
This record is not with the muniments of the borough. The
preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in the
Public Record Office, where is referred to as : —
Pleas of the Crown in the County of Northampton a° 3 Ed. III.
T
of 3rt> >ar in+
STH DECEMBER, 1330.
HIS document contains the first appointment of a custos of
the town of Northampton.
Translation.
Grant concerning the custody of the Town of Northampton.
The King to his beloved and trusty Robert de Ardern104
Greeting We fully confiding in your fidelity and industry have
committed to you the custody of our Town of Northampton and
of the Liberty thereof which by the consideration of our Court
before our Justices Itinerant in our County of Northampton hath
been taken into our hands to hold so long as it shall please us
So that ye do depute under you Bailiffs and other ministers for
the custody aforesaid who shall answer as they ought as well to
us for the profits thence arising as to Isabel Queen of England
our most dear mother for the Farm of the same town which she
hath received by our appointment And therefore we command you
that ye be intendant to execute the premises in form aforesaid
and we do command the good men and commonalty of the aforesaid
town that they be to you attendant and respondent concerning the
premises In testimony &c Witness the King at Kenilworth the
8th day of December By the King himself
For Robert de Ardern
The King to his beloved the good men and all the commonalty
of the town of Northampton Whereas we having full trust in the
fidelity and industry of our beloved and trusty Robert de Ardern
have granted to him the custody of our aforesaid town and of the
liberty thereof which by the consideration of our Court before our
184 This was probably the Robert de Ardern who was sheriff of the county in
1329-30, and lord of the manor of Radston, Northamptonshire, in 1329.
LETTERS PATENT, 1335. 65
Justices itinerant in the County of Northampton hath been taken
into our hand to hold so long as it shall please us So that he do
depute under him bailiffs and other ministers for the custody
aforesaid who shall answer as they ought as well to us for the
profits thence accruing as to Queen Isabel our most dear mother
for the Farm of our same town which she hath received by our
appointment We do command you that ye be to the said Robert
obedient and respondent Witness as above
By the King himself
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the
borough. The preceding transcript has been made from the copy
now in the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Originalia of 3rd Edward III. in the Lord Treasurer's Remem-
brancer's Office.
of
HP
m+
20TH APRIL, 1335.
HIS document contains the first allusion that we have noticed
to the south bridge at Northampton, an important structure,
without the walls of the town, on the London road.
Translation.
Pontage for the men of the town of Northampton.
The good men of the town of Northampton have for the
reparation and amendment of the bridge which leads over
river Nen without the south gate of the same town which is in
a great measure dilapidated and gone to decay a like subsidy on
articles coming to Northampton for sale to be taken for three
years by the hands of William de Lodelowe 105 Walter de Burgh 106
105 William de Lodelowe was one of the representatives of the town of North-
ampton at the parliament held at Westminster in nth Ed. III. He was also
master of the hospital of Saint Leonard in 1346.
loo A Walter de Burgh was one of the representatives of the town of North-
ampton at ten parliaments, between the years 1308 and 1358, probably father
and son.
66 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and William de Burgh 10? of Northampton and of every of them
&c. excepting the clause "by view and testimony &c." Witness
the King at Clipston in Sherwood the 2oth day of April
By writ of the privy seal.
This grant immediately follows one of the i2th April to the
good men of Nottingham enabling them to levy toll on animals
and all manner of specified articles sold in the town of Nottingham
and apply the proceeds for the reparation of the bridge of Hethe-
beck over river Trent under the view and testimony of three
burgesses therein named.
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the
borough. The preceding transcript has been made from the copy
in the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot. Pat. 9™. Ed. III., p. i. m. 24.
of nl$ >wt> HI
i8TH MARCH, 1337.
'HP HIS grant of a fair was a most important concession to the
corporation of Northampton, giving them the right to hold a
fair, and to take tolls on all articles sold during the space of
four weeks.
Translation.
For the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of North-
ampton to have liberty to hold a Fair.
107 William de Burgh was also one of the representatives of the town of
Northampton at four parliaments between the years 1315 and 1339.
CHARTER, 1337. 67
The King to his Archbishops &c Greeting Know ye that we
of our especial grace have granted and by this our Charter have
confirmed to our beloved the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of our
town of Northampton that they their heirs and successors may
every year for ever have at the said town of Northampton one
Fair to last for one month namely on the Monday next after the
Octaves of the Holy Trinity [the second Monday after Trinity
Sunday] and for twenty seven days next ensuing unless the said
Fair be to the injury of the neighbouring Fairs So nevertheless
that the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses or their heirs or
successors take no other toll in the said Fair than hath before our
present grant been accustomed to be received in the same town
Wherefore we will and do firmly command for us and our heirs
that the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their heirs
and successors for ever may have the said Fair at the town
aforesaid with all liberties and free customs to such like Fair
pertaining unless the same Fair be to the injury of the neigh-
bouring Fairs So that the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
or their heirs or successors take no other toll in the said mar-
ket than hath been heretofore accustomed to be taken in the
same town as is aforesaid These being witnesses the venerable
fathers John Archbishop of Canterbury108 Primate of all England
our Chancellor Henry Bishop of Lincoln m our Treasurer Richard
Bishop of Durham110 Thomas Earl of Norfolk111 and Marshal of
England John de Warenne Earl of Surrey112 Thomas de Beau-
108 John Stratford was intruded Bishop of Winchester by the Pope in 1323, was
translated to Canterbury in 1333, and was the founder of the College at Stratford-
on-Avon. He died at Mayfield, in 1348, and was buried by St. Dunstan's Altar,
in Canterbury Cathedral.
109 Henry Burghersh was Treasurer and Chancellor of England, and became
Bishop of Lincoln in 1320. He died at Ghent in 1342 and was buried at the east
end of Lincoln Cathedral.
110 Richard Bury, Dean of Wells, became Bishop of Durham in 1333, and
founded a library at Oxford. He died in 1343 at Auckland, and was buried at
Durham.
111 Thomas " of Brotherton," the second son of King Edward I., was born ist
June, 1300. He was created Earl of Norfolk in 1312, and Marshal of England in
1316. He "fu hom de moult sauvage & diverse maniere " ; and he died August,
1338.
112 John de Warenne was born in 1286, and succeeded as fourth Earl of Surrey
and Warenne in 1305. He died in June, 1347.
F 2
68 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
champ Earl of Warwick 113 Thomas Wake of Lydel 114 John Darcy
the Nephew Steward of our household and others Given by our
hand at Westminster the i8th day of March
By the King himself
This charter is not with the muniments of the borough. The
preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as :—
Rot: Cart 1 1™ Ed. III. no. 67.
of 8^ (RicM n+
JUNE, 1385.
This inspeximus charter incorporated and confirmed the previous
charters of the nth and 4ist Henry III., and 2yth Edward I.,
and granted that the mayor and bailiffs of Northampton should
have the right to try all causes and pleas within the town and
suburbs ; to keep the assize of bread, wine, and beer, and weights
and measures ; and to take cognizance of forestallers and regraters.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied the whole of
this charter in Latin into that book, commencing at folio io5a,
hereinafter printed.
Translation.
Richard by the grace of God King of England and France
and Lord of Ireland To the Archbishops Bishops Abbotts Priors
Dukes Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Reeves Ministers and all
his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting We have inspected a cer-
1)3 Thomas de Beauchamp, the son of Guy, Earl of Warwick, was born in 1313,
and succeeded as the third Earl of Warwick in 1315, on the death of his father.
He was a man " belliger animosus," and was Chief Justice of " Oyer and Terminer "
in the royal forests of Rockingham, Salcey, and Whittlebury, in 1341, and in 1344
he was Marshal of England. He died I3th November, 1369.
114 Thomas Wake was the son of John Wake, who was summoned to Parlia-
ment in 1295 as Baron Wake, of Lydel. Thomas married Blanche, the daughter
of Henry Plantaganet, Earl of Lancaster. He died in 1349, without leaving issue.
CHARTER, 1385. 69
tain charter of the Lord Edward of famous memory formerly King
of England son of King Henry our progenitor made to our
Burgesses of Northampton in these words Edward by the grace
of God [and so forth, repeating the whole of the original charter
of 2yth Edward I., 2yth May, 1299, printed before at page 56]
And we the grants aforesaid holding firm and valid the same
for us and our heirs as much as in us lies to the aforesaid
Burgesses and their heirs and other their successors Burgesses
of the same town grant and confirm for ever as the charters
aforesaid reasonably testify Moreover being willing to show more
abundant favour to the same Burgesses in this behalf we have
granted to them and by this our charter confirmed that although
they or their ancestors either or any of the liberties or acquit-
tances in the said charters contained by any cause arising hitherto
have not fully used Nevertheless the same Burgesses their heirs
and successors Burgesses of the same town the liberties and
acquittances aforesaid and every of them may hereafter fully
enjoy and use without the impediment of us or our heirs Justices
Escheators Sheriffs or other our Bailiffs or Ministers whomsoever
And moreover in relief of the town aforesaid willing to regard
the same Burgesses and their heirs and successors aforesaid with
more ample favours and liberties we have granted to them and
by this our charter confirmed for us and our heirs that they
may have cognizance of all pleas as well of assizes whatsoever
as of other pleas whatsoever within the town aforesaid and the
suburbs of the same arising to be holden before the Mayor and
Bailiffs of the said town for the time being in the Guildhall of
the town aforesaid for ever And that the Mayor of the town
aforesaid for the time being may have for ever in the town
aforesaid and the suburbs of the same the keeping of the assize
of bread wine and beer and the correction and punishment of
the same together with fines amerciaments and other profits
thereof arising to be converted to the use of the commonalty
of the town and suburbs aforesaid And also the keeping of the
assize and assay and the survey of the measures and weights
in the town and suburbs aforesaid as well in the presence as
in the absence of us and our heirs so that the Mayor of the
said town for the time being shall survey the said measures
and weights and those which he shall find false he shall cause
to be burnt and destroyed and other lawful and just measures
70 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and weights to be appointed and sealed And also the trespassers
whom he shall find in this behalf he shall duly punish and chas-
tise as well in the absence as in the presence of us and our
heirs as often as it shall be necessary and shall seem to him
reasonable to be done And that the Mayor there for the time
being for ever may have power as well in such presence as
absence to enquire and take cognizance of forestallers 115 and
regraters 116 of flesh and fish putrid desceased and otherwise
unwholesome in the town and suburbs aforesaid and thereupon
to make due punishment And likewise to dispose of the govern-
ment correction and punishment of the premises together with
the fines forfeitures amerciament and other profits thereof issuing
to the use of the commonalty of the town and suburbs aforesaid
So that the clerk of the market or other minister of us or our
heirs of the premises or any of them or of any things belonging
or appertaining to the office of clerk of the market in no wise
intromit in the town or suburbs aforesaid These being witnesses
The Venerable Father W Archbishop of Canterbury 117 Primate of
all England R Bishop of London118 W Bishop of Winchester119
Thomas Bishop of Exeter120 John King of Castille and Leon121
115 A forestaller was one who bought corn, cattle, or other merchandise, as it
came to a fair or market with the intent to sell the same again at a higher price.
116 A regrater was one who bought by wholesale, in order to sell again by retail.
117 "William Courtenay, the eldest son of Hugh Courtenay, second Earl of Devon,
became Bishop of Hereford in 1369, he was translated to London in 1375, and
became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1382. He died at Maidstone in 1396, and was
buried in that churchyard. In Canterbury Cathedral there is a monument to this
prelate.
118 Robert de Braybrook was a Canon of Lichfield, and became Bishop of London
in 1381. He died in 1404, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
19 William of Wykeham was the King's chaplain, and renowned in history. In
1356 he was clerk of the King's works at Hendle and Yethampstead, in 1359
surveyor of works at Windsor ; he built the royal castle at Queenborough, founded
Winchester School, and New College, Oxford, restored St. Cross, and rebuilt the
nave of Winchester Cathedral. He died in 1404, and was buried at Winchester.
The celebrated motto, " Manners makyth man," was first adopted by this bishop.
120 Thomas Brantyngham, a Canon of Exeter, became Bishop in 1369. He
founded the Vicars' College, at Exeter. He died in 1394, at Clyst, Devon, and
was buried at Exeter.
121 John of Ghent, the fourth son of King Edward III., was born in 1340; created
Earl of Richmond in 1342 ; Duke of Lancaster, 1362 ; Lord of Bergerac, 1376 ; and
Duke of Aquitain, 1390; and from 1372 to 1388, he was styled King of Castille
and Leon. He was " bon chevalier & grand capitaine de gens d'armes " ; and he
died in 1399.
CHARTER, 1385. 71
Duke of Lancaster Edmund Earl of York133 Thomas Earl of
Buckingham 133 our most dear Uncles Richard Earl of Arundel 134
Hugh Earl of Stafford135 Michael de la Pole136 our Chancellor
Hugh de Segrave our Treasurer John de Montacute Steward of
our Household and others Given by our hand at Westminster
the fourteenth day of June in the eighth year of our reign
Waltham
By the King himself and his Council and for fifty marks paid
into the Hanaper13?
Indorsed.
Allowed before the Lord the King of the term of St. Hilary
in the ninth year of the reign of King Richard the second [1385]
roll xxij.
Examined by Thomas de Stanley and Richard de Holm Clerks
Inrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer to wit amongst
the records of the term of Saint Michael in the fourth year of
122 Edmund, surnamed of Langley, the fifth son of King Edward III., was born in
1341, created Earl of Cambridge in 1362; Lord of Wark in 1373; and Duke of
York in 1385; and he was a justice of the peace for the county of Northampton.
"Conte de Cantebrigge de renon
Qui eust coer fier come lion."
He died in 1402.
123 Thomas of Woodstock, the seventh son of King Edward III., was born in
1385. He was created Earl of Buckingham in 1377 ; Duke of Gloucester, 1385 ;
and Lord of Holderness, 1389. He was " Orgueilleux & presomptueux de maniere " ;
and was styled Earl of Northampton, in right of his wife, Lady Eleanor de Bohun,
daughter and heiress of Humphrey, Earl of Northampton. He was murdered in
September, 1397.
124 Richard Fitz-Alan was born in 1346, and succeeded as sixth Earl of Arundel
in 1376. He married Lady Elizabeth de Bohun, daughter of William, Earl of
Northampton. He was beheaded in September, 1397.
125 Hugh de Stafford was born about 1342, and succeeded as second Earl of
Stafford in 1372. He was a pilgrim in the Holy Land, in April, 1386, and again
in September, the same year.
126 Sir Michael de la Pole, was born about 1330. He purchased the manor of
Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, in 1359-60, and settled it on his son in 1383-84.
He was created Earl of Suffolk, August, 1385 ; and died at Paris, September, 1389.
127 The hanaper was the King's private treasury, and was kept by the clerk of
the hanaper, whose function it was to receive moneys due to the King for the
sealing of charters, letters patent, commissions, and writs. Fifty marks amounted
to ^33. 6s. 8d., a large sum of money at that time.
72 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
the reign of King Henry the fourth [1403] on the part of the
King's Remembrancer to wit in a certain process touching John
Lowdeham.
Allowed before the Lord the King at Northampton of the
term of Easter in the ninth year of the reign of King Henry
the fifth after the Conquest [1422] amongst the common pleas,
roll xxix.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, 23! inches wide, and i6f
inches deep. The first line is ornamented with a large initial
letter and a row of vertical leaves. The great seal of England
in green wax remains attached to the silk cord, in an almost
complete condition.
On the back is written : —
" 14° Junij 80 Rici 2di.
" The charter of Richard the second whereby 2 charters of
" Hen: 3rd & one of Edwd. the ist are confirmed and fresh
" priviledges granted viz1, that all pleas of Afsize & other pleas
" whatsoever happening within the Libertys of Northton may be
" held before the Mayor and Bailiffs of the sft town for the time
"being in the Guildhall of the said Town for ever And that
"the Mayor of the said town for the time being shall have the
"keeping of the Afsize of Bread wine and Beer & of the Afsize
" & Afsay of weights and measures & has power to enquire &
"take Cognizance of forestallers and regraters - fflesh & ffish
"within the Libertys of the Town."
"9"
of
3RD OCTOBER, 1400.
n^HIS grant to the burgesses in aid of inclosing the town is
on the same lines as the preceding grants for a similar
purpose; and was only to last for the space of two years.
LETTERS PATENT, 1400. 73
Translation.
Concerning Murage.
The King to his beloved the Burgesses and good men of our
town of Northampton Greeting Know ye that we have granted
to you in aid of inclosing your aforesaid town for the security
and defence of the same town and of the parts adjacent the
underwritten customs to be levied and collected on saleable
articles coming to the aforesaid town by the hands of good and
faithful men to be by you hereunto deputed unto the end of two
years next following fully to be completed namely on every load
of corn of whatsoever kind for sale one farthing on every horse
mare ox or cow for sale one halfpenny on two hides of horse
mare ox or cow fresh or salted or tanned for sale one farthing
on three salted salmons one farthing on five hogs for sale
one farthing on every fresh salmon for sale one farthing on
every fresh lamprey for sale one farthing on three salted
lampreys one farthing on six sheep for sale one halfpenny
on two pigs for sale one farthing on every hundred of skins
of lambs kids hares rabbits foxes cats and squirrels for sale
one halfpenny on every hundred of badger skins two pence
on every great load of cloth for sale one penny on every entire
cloth one halfpenny on every hundred of linen canvass cloth of
Ireland Galway worsted and Kendal for sale one penny on
every worsted cloth called coverlet with . . .for sale one
halfpenny on every cloth of silk mixed with gold samite diapre
and baudekyn for sale one halfpenny on every cloth not mixed
with gold and " chief" of cendal ... for sale one farthing
on every cask of wine for sale one penny on every pipe of
wine for sale one halfpenny on every cask of woad two pence
on every quarter of woad one halfpenny on every cask of
ashes for sale one farthing on every sack or pocket of mad-
der or alum for sale one halfpenny on every cask of oil of
olives or of other oil whatsoever for sale three pence on every
pipe of oil for sale one penny and a halfpenny on every barrel
of oil for sale one halfpenny on every load of cloth or other
goods whatsoever for sale one farthing on every cart load of
tan for sale one farthing on every hundred weight of ...
three halfpence on every bale of Spanish wax two pence on every
74 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
bale of wax of Poland and Lubeck one penny on every hundred
weight of fat and tallow for sale one halfpenny on two thousand
of onions for sale one farthing on eight bundles of garlick for
sale one farthing on every thousand of herrings fresh or salted
for sale one halfpenny on every barrel of herrings of Scone for
sale one halfpenny on every load of fish for sale one farthing
on every hundred of boards for sale one penny on every millstone
for sale one farthing on every pair of millstones for sale one
penny on every thousand of faggots for sale one penny halfpenny
on every thousand of Astelwode for sale one penny on every
thousand of turfs for sale one farthing on every quarter of salt
for sale one farthing on every stone of cheese and butter for
sale one halfpenny on every thousand of great nails for sale one
farthing on two thousand of small nails one farthing on every
hundred of ... for sale one halfpenny on two barrels of
pitch and fish for sale one farthing on three quarters of tan for
sale one farthing on every hundred weight of tin brass and
copper for sale one penny on every hundred of steel gads for
sale one halfpenny on every hundred of Aberdeen for sale one
penny on every hundred of great stock fish for sale one penny on
every hundred of small stock fish one halfpenny on ten stone of
flax or hemp for sale one farthing on every truss of merchandize
of whatsoever kind and on every other thing not above specified
coming from whatsoever part to the aforesaid town for sale and
exceeding the value of five shillings wools hides tanned skins iron
and lead only excepted one farthing So that the money thence
arising be employed about the inclosure of the aforesaid town and
be converted to no other uses And therefore we do command
you that ye do take the said customs there on such like goods
and merchandizes unto the end of the said two years in form
aforesaid and not otherwise and that the said term of two years
being ended the aforesaid customs do utterly cease and be abolished
In testimony whereof &c Witness the King at Westminster the
3rd day of October
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: 2*° Hen. IV. m.
of
i8TH MARCH, 1431.
HPHESE letters patent contain an exemplification of an Act of
Parliament for paving and repairing the principal streets
of Northampton.
This document has been copied twice into the Liber Custum-
arum ; the first time in Norman-French commencing on folio
5ia; the second in English commencing on folio 520, both
hereinafter printed.
This writing, which is with the borough muniments, is on
parchment, 15 inches wide and 8 inches deep. The commence-
ment and termination are in Latin, the remainder in Norman-
French. It is tied through the lower fold with a strip of
parchment, but has not had a seal.
On the back is written : —
" 1 8° Martij 9° Hen. 6"
" Exemplification of an Act of Parliam' for paving and
" repairing certain highways & streets within the Town of
" Northampton."
"1430" "10"
There are also two copies in the Public Record Office, one
of which is referred to as : —
Rot : Par I : gno Hen : VI. N°- 23.
the other : —
Rot: Pat: gno Hen: VI. iw pt. m. 7.
of
vu
20TH MAY, 1439.
*~PHESE letters patent, which are similar to an inspeximus
charter, incorporated and confirmed the previous charters
76 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of the nth and 4ist Henry III., 2yth Edward I., and 8th Richard
II., without, however, granting any fresh privileges.
Translation.
[H]enry by the grace of God [K]ing of England and France
and Lord of Ireland To all to whom the present letters shall
come Greeting We have inspected the charter of the Lord
Richard late King of England after the Conquest the second
our Progenitor [RJichard by the grace of God [and so forth,
repeating the whole of the original charter of 8th Richard II.,
I4th June, 1385, printed before on page 68] And the charters
and letters aforesaid of such grants liberties franchises and
acquittances not revoked with the advice and assent of the Lords
spiritual and temporal being in our Parliament holden at West-
minster in the first year of our reign Do accept approve and
to the now Burgesses of the town aforesaid ratify and confirm
as the charters and letters aforesaid reasonably witness and as
they ought to use the same and they and their ancestors late
burgesses of the town aforesaid the same liberties franchises
and acquittances from the time of the making of the charters
and letters aforesaid always hitherto have been accustomed
reasonably to use and enjoy In testimony whereof we have
caused these our letters to be made patent Witness ourself at
Westminster the twentieth day of May in the seventeenth year
of our reign.
Examined by John Grakkord ) „ ,
Robert Mouter )
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, 295- inches wide and 16
inches deep. The writing is unornamented, and although spaces
have been reserved for the initials H, R, and R they have not been
inserted. A portion of the great seal of England still remains.
On the back is written : —
"20° Maij 17° Hen. 6U
" The Charter of Hen: 6li whereby two Charters of Hen: 38
" one of EdwS ist & one of Richard the second are confirmed."
"11 "
of
IITH JUNE, 1445.
"DY this charter the King granted that the mayor of the town
for the time being should be his escheator in the same
town and in the suburbs and fields thereof. With liberty for the
mayor and commonalty to acquire lands, tenements, or rents to
the value of £40 a year, to be held of the King or other person,
without payment of fine or fee for the King's use.
Translation.
Henry by the grace of God King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland To the Archbishops Bishops Abbotts Priors
Dukes Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Reeves Ministers and all
his Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting Know ye that we con-
sidering how the men of our town of Northampton for the yearly
fee farm of the same town towards us are grievously charged
of our special grace and for the singular affection which we bear
and have to our beloved the Mayor and commonalty of the same
town have granted for us and our heirs that as well every
burgess of the town aforesaid who hereafter shall be chosen as
Mayor of the same town and shall be Mayor so soon as and when
he shall be chosen and preferred as Mayor of the same town
as the now Mayor of the town aforesaid be henceforth the
escheator128 of us our heirs and successors in the town aforesaid
and the suburbs and fields of the same town during the time
when any such burgess shall remain in the office of Mayoralty
of the town aforesaid and that the same escheator and his
successors may have the same power jurisdiction and authority
128 The escheator was the officer who observed and certified the King's escheats,
or lands or other profits coming to the King by way of forfeiture or failure of
heirs. This officer was appointed usually by the Lord Treasurer.
jS NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and liberty and other things whatsoever appertaining to the office
of escheator in the same town suburbs and fields as other
escheators of us and our heirs elsewhere have and shall have
within the kingdom of England And that at no time hereafter
any other escheator intromit himself of any thing touching the
office of escheator in any wise howsoever to be exercised within
the town suburbs and fields aforesaid unless only the Mayor of
the town aforesaid for the time being and that the said now
Mayor shall take his oath well and faithfully to execute the
office of our escheator of the town aforesaid before any sufficient
and considerable person by pretext of our mandate directed to
the same person under our great seal and that every Mayor of
the town aforesaid hereafter to be chosen at the time when he
shall take his oath before the Barons of the Exchequer of us
and our heirs well and faithfully to execute the office of Mayor-
alty of the town aforesaid shall take his oath before the same
Barons well and faithfully to execute the office of escheator of
the town aforesaid and shall yearly answer to us and our heirs
of the issues and revenues issuing of the said office of escheator
at the Exchequer of us and our heirs and that the same Mayor
and his successors at the time when they shall take their oath
before the aforesaid Barons may lawfully appoint an attorney
before the same barons to make their prefers and to account
for them in the Exchequer of us and our heirs of the issues of
the same Escheatorship yearly Moreover we have given and
granted license for us and our heirs aforesaid as much as in us
lies to the same now Mayor and commonalty and their successors
that they may purchase lands tenements and rents to the value
of forty pounds by the year which are holden of us in socage 129
or burgage 13° or of other persons whomsoever by any service
whatsoever without fine or fee to be paid to our use To have and
to hold to the same Mayor and commonalty and their successors
to their relief for ever the statute passed for not putting lands
and tenements to mortmain or although express mention of the
129 " A tenure of lands by or for certain inferiour or husbandly services to bee
"performed to the Lord of the Fee."
180 " A tenure proper to cities and townes whereby men of cities or borrowes,
" hold their lands or tenements of the King or other Lord for a certain yearely
" rent."
CHARTER, 1445. 79
true value of the premises or of other gifts or grants heretofore
made to the Mayor and commonalty of the town aforesaid by
us or our progenitors be not made in these presents or any
act ordinance or appointment made passed or ordained notwith-
standing provided it be found by inquisition thereof to be duly
taken and rightly returned into the chancery of us or our heirs
that the same may be done without loss or prejudice to us or
our heirs or others whomsoever These being witnesses The
Venerable Fathers J Archbishop of Canterbury131 Primate of all
England and Legate of the Apostolic See our Chancellor W
Bishop of Salisbury132 and Thomas Bishop of Bath and Wells133
our most dear uncle Humphrey Duke of Gloucester 134 and our
most dear cousins John Duke of Exeter135 and Humphrey Duke
of Buckingham 13G John Marquis of Dorset137 and William
Marquis of Suffolk 138 Steward of our Household Richard Earl
131 John Stafford, the son of Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, was first Dean and
subsequently Bishop of Wells ; in 1443 he became Archbishop of Canterbury. He
died at Maidstone in 1443, and was buried before the Lady Chapel in Canterbury
Cathedral. " Archbishop Stafford seems to have been distinguished either as
"chancellor or archbishop by no very remarkable ability."
132 William Ayscough the confessor of King Henry VI. became Bishop of
Salisbury in 1438. He was murdered by a mob at Edington, Wilts., in 1450, and
was there buried.
133 Thomas de Beckington, Dean of Arches, and Archdeacon of Bucks., was
consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells on the I3th October, 1443, in the old
collegiate church of Eton. He built the Western cloisters and repaired the Palace at
Wells. He died in 1466, and was buried in Wells Cathedral near the Presbytery.
134 Humphrey of Lancaster the fourth son of King Henry IV., was born in
1391, and created Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Gloucester in 1414. In 1437 he
was constable of the Castle and steward of the forest of Rockingham. He was
said to be of a "beau person nage " and a " strenuissimus princeps." He died
in 1446.
135 John de Holland was born in 1394, he was restored Earl of Huntingdon about
1416, created Earl of Exeter in 1433, and died in April, 1447.
136 Humphrey Stafford was born in 1402 and succeeded as sixth Earl of Stafford
the next year. He was also styled Earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Essex, Northampton,
and Perche, and he was a justice of the peace for Northamptonshire. He married
Lady Anne Neville, daughter of the first Earl of Westmorland. He was killed at the
battle of Northampton, roth July, 1460.
137 Edmund Beaufort was born about 1402, and created Marquis of Dorset in
1443. Possibly the word " John " was a clerical error.
138 \yiHiam de \a po\e was born in 1395, and succeeded as fourth Earl of Suffolk in
1415. He was possessed of many titles and many honours. He was murdered the
2nd May, 1450.
80 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of Salisbury139 and John Earl of Shrewsbury140 John Viscount
of Beaumont141 our beloved and faithful Sir Ralph Cromwell
Knight143 and Sir Ralph Botiler Knight our Treasurer of
England and Chamberlain of our Household Master Adam
Molins Keeper of our Privy Seal and others Given by our hand
at Westminster the eleventh day of June in the twenty- third
year of our reign
By writ of Privy Seal and of the date
aforesaid by authority of Parliament.
Kirkeby
Indorsed.
Inrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer of the twenty-
fourth year of King Henry the sixth amongst the records of the
term of S. Michael Roll 2 on the part of the Treasurer's
Remembrancer.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment iy| inches wide and n|
inches deep. The first line is beautifully ornamented. The initial
H is surmounted by a crown, and encloses an angel bearing an
heraldic shield, which, however is blank, on the last scroll of the
line are the words: " Rege fac faium dfie." The great, seal of
England in green wax is attached : it is fairly perfect.
On the back is written : —
an° Junij 23° Hen: 6"
" Grant of Henry 6th wherby 'tis granted int alia that the
" Mayor of Northampton for the time being shall for ever
" herafter be Efcheator there."
"12"
" Henricus 6US maiore effe eftaer."
139 Richard Neville was born in 1400, and created Earl of Salisbury in 1429. He
filled many important offices in England. In November, 1459, he was attainted ;
restored in blood and honours in October the next year ; and ultimately beheaded
the following December.
140 John Talbot who was born in 1390, was created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1442.
He was a justice of the peace for Northamptonshire. Jean de Waurin says " On le
" tenoit pour ce tempz estre le sage et vaillant chevalier du royaulme d' Angleterre."
He was killed at Chastillion, the 2Oth July, 1453.
141 John Beaumont was born in 1409, and succeeded as sixth Baron Beaumont
and Viscount Beaumout 1440. He was killed in 1460.
142 Sir Ralph Cromwell was possessed of property at Sutton, Colly Weston, and
Paston in this county.
of 30$
i2TH MARCH, 1452.
letters patent recite the last charter of nth June, 1445,
•*• and state that in consequence of two Acts of Parliament of
the 1 8th and 3oth Henry VI., the said charter had become void,
to the damage of the men of Northampton, so the King regranted
the privileges in the same form as is contained in the said
charter by this document.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied these letters
patent in Latin into that book, commencing on folio loyb, here-
inafter printed.
Translation.
[HJENRY by the grace of God [K]ing of [E]ngland and
[F] ranee and Lord of Ireland to all to whom these present letters
shall come Greeting You must know that whereas we considering
how grievously the men of our town of Northampton have been
burthened for the fee farm of that town every year with us on
the nth day of June in the 23rd year of our reign of our special
grace and because of the singular affection which we have had
and borne towards our beloved Mayor and commonalty of the
town aforesaid have granted for us and our heirs that as well
every burgess of the town aforesaid who from that time should be
about to be elected Mayor of that town and should be actually
Mayor and as soon as he shall have been so elected and
appointed Mayor of that town as the present Mayor of the town
aforesaid should be from that time our Escheator and the Escheator
of our heirs and successors in the town aforesaid and in the
suburbs and fields of the same town during the time that any
such burgess shall remain in the office of Mayor of the said
town and that the same Escheator and his successors should have
the same power jurisdiction authority and liberty and all other
things belonging to the office of Escheator in the same town
suburbs and fields as the other Escheators of ourselves and our
heirs elsewhere within the realm of England had and shall have
$2 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
And that in no future time henceforward shall any other
Escheator interfere about anything that appertains to the office
of Escheator to be exercised within the town suburbs and fields
aforesaid in any way except only the Mayor of the town afore-
said for the time being And that the said Mayor shall take
his oath concerning the office of our Escheator of the town
aforesaid well and faithfully to be performed before some notable
and sufficient person under the authority of our mandate to be
directed to the same person under our great seal and that
every Mayor of the town aforesaid from that time forward to be
elected at the time that he should take his oath before the Barons
of our Exchequer and those of our heirs as to the good and
faithful discharge of the office of Mayor of the town aforesaid
may take his oath before the same Barons as to the good and
faithful discharge of the office of Escheator of the town aforesaid
and may answer to us and to our heirs concerning the outgoings
and revenues due from the said office of Escheator to our Exchequer
and that of our heirs And that the same Mayor and his successors
at the time when they should take their oath before the aforesaid
Barons may lawfully proceed before the same Barons by their
attorneys to make up their accounts and to account for them in
the Exchequer of ourselves and our heirs as to the outgoings of
the same escheatorship every year as in our charter for that
purpose conferred is contained And now on behalf of the said
men wre are given to understand that our charter and all and
singular the things in the same contained by the force and virtue
of a certain Act143 in our Parliament begun at Westminster in
the 1 8th year of our reign and finished at Leicester and of a
certain other Act143 in our last Parliament held in like manner
at Westminster are void and of no effect to the same men as is
said to the no small loss and grievance of those men and our
town aforesaid Wherefore they have made humble supplication to
us that we would be graciously pleased to grant them other
letters patent of ours in this matter We being favourably inclined
to their supplication in this matter of our special grace and
because of the singular affection which we have and bear towards
our beloved Mayor and commonalty of that town have now granted
anew for us and our heirs that as well every Burgess of the town
143 These appear to have been private acts, and are not in the statutes at large.
LETTERS PATENT, 1452. 83
aforesaid who shall hereafter be about to be elected Mayor of
that town and shall be actually Mayor and as soon as he shall
be elected and appointed Mayor of that town as the present
Mayor of the town aforesaid shall be from that time forward our
Escheator and Escheator of our heirs and successors in the town
aforesaid and the suburbs and fields of the same town during the
time that every such burgess shall remain in the office of Mayor
of the town aforesaid And that the same Escheator and his
successors may have the same power jurisdiction authority and
liberty and all other things whatsoever belonging to the office of
escheator in the same town suburbs and fields as other Escheators
of us and our heirs elsewhere within the realm of England have
and shall have And that at no future time may any other
Escheator interfere about anything that appertains to the office
of escheator to be exercised within the town suburbs and fields
aforesaid in any way except only the Mayor of the town aforesaid
for the time being And that the said Mayor now being take his
oath concerning the office of escheator of our town aforesaid well
and faithfully to be performed before some sufficient and notable
person under the authority of our mandate to be directed to the
same person under our great seal and that every Mayor of the
town aforesaid hereafter to be elected at the time that he shall
take his oath before the Barons of our Exchequer and those of
our heirs as to the good and faithful discharge of the office of
mayor of the town aforesaid may take his oath before the same
Barons as to the good and faithful discharge of the office of
escheator of the town aforesaid and may answer to us and to our
heirs aforesaid concerning the outgoings and revenues due from
the said office of escheator to our Exchequer and that ot our
heirs every year And that the same Mayor and his successors at
the time that they shall take their oath before the aforesaid
Barons may lawfully proceed before the same Barons by their
attorneys to make up their accounts and to account for them in
the Exchequer of us and our heirs as to the outgoings of the said
escheatorship every year In testimony whereof we have caused
these our letters to be made patent Witness myself at West-
minster the 1 2th day of March in the 3oth year of our reign
Godyng
By writ of Privy Seal and of the date aforesaid
by authority of Parliament.
G 2
84 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Indorsed.
Enrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer of the year xxxiij
of Henry VI. [1453] amongst the records of the term of St.
Michael Roll xxvj on the part of the Treasurer's Remembrancer,
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the cor-
poration, are written in Latin on plain parchment, 20 inches wide and
15 inches deep. The writing is unornamented : a large space has
been left for the initial H, and smaller spaces in the first line for
the capitals of Rex and other words, but none of these letters
have been filled in. A fragment of the great seal of England
remains attached to the silk cord. The document has been slightly
injured by damp.
On the back is written : —
" 12° Macij 30° Hen. VI.
" The Charter of Hen: the sixth whereby the Mayor of North-
(l ampton for the time being is appointed Escheator there de
" Novo, for that a former Grant made to the same Effect 11°
" Junij 23° Hen 6tl is became vid by reafon of two several Acts of
" Pal within mentioned to be pafsed since the making thereof."
There is also a copy in the Public Record Office, where it is
referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: jomo Hen. VI. 2nd pt. m. 4.
of 38$ Ixnt^ vu
i4TH MARCH, 1459.
charter recites that the men and burgesses of North-
ampton had rendered notable services to the King, and
further that they had from the time of legal memory enjoyed
liberties and franchises. Therefore by this charter, the King, by
reason of his singular affection to the then mayor of the town,
incorporated the town by the name of the mayor, bailiffs, and
CHARTER, 1459. 85
burgesses of Northampton, and appointed the mayor justice of
the peace for the same town.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied the whole of this
charter in Latin into that book, commencing at folio uoa, herein-
after printed.
Translation.
HENRY by the grace of God King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland To the Archbishops Bishops Abbotts Priors
Dukes Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Reeves Ministers and all his
Bailiffs and faithful men Greeting Know ye that we considering
not only the great and memorable services which the faithful men
and Burgesses of our town of Northampton have heretofore done to
us but also the great and memorable services which they have now
lately performed by their daily attendance on and assistance to
our royal person at their heavy costs expenses and charges for
the resistance reduction and correction of divers of our rebellious
people on which account they and by payment of the fee farm of
the town aforesaid are very much burthened and charged as we
have heard And whereas also the Mayor and Bailiffs in the
town aforesaid have existed continually from time whereof memory
is not and have had and obtained divers liberties franchises
acquittances and immunities of the grants of our famous pro-
genitors formerly Kings of England and our own for the sound
and fitting government of the same town Willing therefore and
for the singular affection which we bear and have to our beloved
William Austyn Esquire 144c the now Mayor of the town aforesaid
and the Burgesses and commonalty of the same town more
graciously to show our royal munificence to the same Burgesses
in this behalf of our special grace and of our mere motion and
certain knowledge Have granted and by this our present charter
confirmed for us our heirs and successors to the Burgesses of
the town aforesaid and their successors for ever the liberties
franchises acquittances and immunities underwritten to wit That
the same town be for ever incorporated of one Mayor two
Bailiffs and Burgesses and that the same Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses and their successors Mayors Bailiffs and Burgesses of the
14 William Austyn, or Austin, was mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-69, and
1476-77.
86 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
same town so incorporated be one perpetual community incorporated
in deed and name by the name of the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses of the same town and may have perpetual succession
And that the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their suc-
cessors aforesaid by the same name be persons fit in the law to
prosecute and defend all manner of pleas suits plaints and
demands and also actions real personal and mixed moved or to be
moved in any of the courts whatsoever of us or our heirs or others
whomsoever as well before us and our heirs as before any
spiritual and secular justices and judges whomsoever And that
they in the same may plead and be impleaded and answer and
be answered Also we have granted for us and our heirs aforesaid
to the aforesaid now Mayor and Burgesses and their successors
that whensoever any Mayor of the said town for the time being
within the time of his office of Mayoralty in any manner shall
happen to die or by reason of infirmity or in any other cause to
withdraw or vacate so that the said office cannot be duly executed
then the said burgesses of the town aforesaid their heirs and
successors may have full power jurisdiction authority and liberty
at the court of hustings of the said town next to be holden after
the death withdrawal or vacating of such Mayor to choose
amongst themselves one other of the co-burgesses of the said
town as Mayor of the said town And which Mayor so elected or
to be elected shall take his oath of the office of mayoralty and
escheator of the same town before the Barons of the Exchequer
of us and our heirs well and faithfully to do observe keep and
execute the same offices and yearly to answer to us and our
heirs of the issues and revenues issuing of the said office of
escheator at the Exchequer of us and our heirs as before it hath
been accustomed yearly to be done so often as the case aforesaid
shall happen to arise And further of our more abundant grace
we have granted for us our heirs and successors to the aforesaid
now Mayor and Burgesses of the town aforesaid and their suc-
cessors that as well the same now Mayor as every Burgess of the
town aforesaid who hereafter shall be chosen as Mayor of the
same town and shall be Mayor so soon as and when he shall
be elected and appointed as Mayor of the same town thenceforth
shall be a justice or custos to keep the peace of us our heirs or
successors within the town aforesaid the suburbs and fields of
the same town as they are extended during the time in which
CHARTER, 1459. 87
any such Burgess shall be in the office of the mayoralty of the
town aforesaid And giving and granting to the same Mayor
Burgesses and their successors who hereafter shall be chosen Mayor
of the same town full authority and power by the tenor of these
presents to do exercise and execute all and singular the things
which to a justice or custos of our peace within the town afore-
said the suburbs and fields of the same town as they are
extended duly pertain to be done for ever And that no warrant
of supersedeas for security of the peace under the testimony of
any justice of us our heirs and successors assigned or to be
assigned to keep the peace in the County of Northampton be
hereafter allowed within the liberty of the said town unless the
names of the manucaptors 145 and the sum in which the said
manucaptors before such justice are bound to us by their recog-
nizance in this behalf be fully expressed and declared that the
said Mayor and his successors who have the keeping of the
peace there as well of the grant of us as of our progenitors may
duly certify us in any of our courts whatsoever concerning such
security AND LASTLY of our more abundant grace we have
granted for us our heirs and successors to the aforesaid now
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their successors that neither the
same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses nor either of them nor their
successors nor either of them dwelling and residing within the
said town and the suburbs of the same hereafter be made taxers
assessors or collectors or taxer assessor or collector of any tax quota
or subsidy or fifteenth and tenth or of any other tax imposition
or tollage whatsoever to us our heirs or successors to be granted
by the commonalty of our kingdom of England of or in the
county of Northampton aforesaid or elsewhere except only in the
aforesaid town of Northampton and the suburbs and fields of the
same as they are extended but that they and every of them be
hereof altogether acquitted and discharged for ever These being
witnesses The venerable fathers Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury146
145 Manucaptors or mainpernors were those who were sureties or gave bail for
one accused.
146 Thomas Bouchier became successively Bishop of Worcester in 1435, of Ely
in 1443, and Archbishop in 1454. He died in 1486, and was buried in Canterbury
Cathedral to the north of the high altar. " ' We only gathered from him flowers
"'instead of fruit,' says the monk who writes his life, 'as from a useless tree.
" ' Except on the day of his installation, he would never celebrate mass or solemn
" ' service in his cathedral.' "
88 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and W Archbishop of York14? W Bishop of Winchester148 our
Chancellor and L Bishop of Durham 149 Keeper of our Privy
Seal and our most dear cousins Henry Duke of Exeter150 and
Humphrey Duke of Buckingham151 John Earl of Shrewsbury152
and James Earl of Wiltshire153 our Treasurer John Viscount of
Beaumont154 and Henry Viscount Bourghchier and also our
beloved and faithful Sir John de Beauchamp Knight Steward of
our Household and Sir Richard Tunstall our Chancellor and
others Given by our hand at Westminster the I4th day of March
in the thirty eighth year of our reign
By writ of Privy Seal and of the date
aforesaid by authority of Parliament
Nay lor
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, 20 inches wide, and loj
inches deep. The first line is ornamented with initial letters.
The cord worked through the lower edge is twisted of gold and
silver thread, silk, and cotton. The seal has gone.
On the back is written : —
"14° Marcij 38° Hen. 6li
147 William Boothe was a Canon of St. Paul's, London ; and in 1447 he was
appointed Bishop of Lichfield ; in 1452 he was translated to York. He died in
1464, and was buried at Southwell.
H8 William Waynflete, a native of Waynflete, Lincolnshire, was elected
Bishop of Winchester in 1447. He founded St. Mary Magdalene College, Oxford,
and the Free School, at Waynflete ; and was Chancellor of England from 1449 to
1459. He died in 1486, and was buried at Winchester.
149 Lawrence Boothe, the half-brother of William Boothe, and Chancellor of
England, was appointed by Papal bull, through the interest of Queen Margaret,
Bishop of Durham in 1457 ; and in 1476 he was translated to York. He died in
1480, and was buried at Southwell.
150 Henry Holand was born in 1430, and succeeded as second Duke of Exeter
in 1447. He was Constable of Fotheringhay Castle in 1459. He was attainted 4th
November 1461 ; and in 1473 he was found dead in the sea.
151 For note as to Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, see page 79.
152 John Talbot, the son of the first Earl of Shrewsbury, was born in 1413, and
succeeded as Earl in 1453. He was killed at the battle of Northampton, loth
July, 1460.
153 James Butler, son of the fourth Earl of Ormund, was born in 1420, and
created Earl of Wiltshire in 1449. He was beheaded in 1461.
154 John Beaumont, son of the fifth Baron Beaumont, was born in 1409,
succeeded as the sixth Baron in 1413; and was created Viscount Beaumont in
1440. He also was killed the loth July, 1460.
CHARTER, 1459. 89
"The Charter of Hen. 6th whereby the Town of Northampton
"is incorporated by the name of the Mayor Bailiffs & Burgeises
"of that Town & by that name are capacitated to sue and be
"sued provifion is alfo made in cafe of the death &.c. of a Mayor
" to pceed to a fresh Eleccon and 'tis granted that no Burgeis for
"the future shall be obliged to collect any Tax out of the libertys
"of the town."
"14"
of
iv+
20TH FEBRUARY, 1462.
PHESE letters patent promulgated a general pardon after the
King's accession to the throne on the 28th June, 1461, for
all offences committed before the 4th November, the same year.
A few persons are exempted by name, as well as all rebels in
Scotland and France, and certain others.
The following translation is an abstract only of the original
document, which is very lengthy.
Abbreviated Translation.
Edward by the grace of God King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland To all his bailiffs and faithful men to whom the
present letters shall come Greeting Know ye that by our especial
grace and out of our certain knowledge and mere motion We
pardon remit and release to our faithful men of the town of
Northampton and to the burgesses of Northampton all manner of
transgressions offences misprisons contempts and violences by the
same men committed before the 4th day of November last past
any statute to the contrary notwithstanding And we also pardon
to all others all manner of murders rapes rebellions insurrections
felonies and other transgressions Provided always that no pardon
90 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of ours be extended to John Waleys 155 late of Thorneton in the
county of Devon Esquire Roger Thorp late of London Esquire
William Phillips otherwise called William Ferrour late of London
Esquire Edward Thorneburgh late of Carlisle Gentleman John
Amyas late of Walton in the county of York Gentleman Michael
Rygby late of Kingston-on-Thames in the county of Surrey
Yeoman and Thomas Sergeauntson late of York Yeoman nor to
any other person attaint by the authority of Parliament nor to
rebels in Scotland or France nor to any officers who had to
render accounts In testimony whereof we have caused these our
letters to be made patent Witness myself at Westminster the
2oth day of February in the first year of our reign
By the King himself
ffrankes
Indorsed.
Inrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer that is to say
amongst the records of the term of Trinity in the second year
of King Edward the fourth Roll on the part of the King's
Remembrancer.
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, igf inches wide, and 10
inches deep. The capital letters of the first line are slightly
ornamented. The greater portion of the great seal of England, in
white wax, much defaced, remains attached to a strip of parchment.
On the back is written : —
"20° ffeb:j° E3ri 4*
" A Pardon under the Broad Seal of all Treasons Murders
" Rapes Rebellions Jnsurrections Conspiracys Trespafses & of-
" fences whatsoever committed by the Men or Burgefses of
*' Northampton before the 4th day of Nov : last past certain
" persons being exempted by name."
"15"
155 None of the persons exempted from this pardon were connected with the
borough or county of Northampton.
Jitters tybttni of 2trt> &twart iv+
30TH MAY, 1462.
TDY these letters patent the King remitted to the town of
Northampton the annual sum of £20, part of the farm of
the town, for the term of 20 years.
Translation.
For the pardon of our Men of Northampton.
The King to all his Bailiffs and faithful men to whom the
present letters shall come Greeting Know ye that we of our
certain knowledge and mere motion have pardoned remised and
released for us and our heirs to the Mayor and Bailiffs Burgesses
men and commonalty of our town of Northampton and their
heirs and successors by whatsoever name they are incorporated
called or known twenty pounds parcel of one hundred and eighty
marks of the farm of the town aforesaid of which the same
Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men and commonalty of the said town
or either of them was or were then charged towards us in our
Exchequer of record by the name of the men of the town of North-
ampton or by any other name whatsoever for the farm of their
town And we do grant that the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs Bur-
gesses men and commonalty of the same town and their heirs
and successors of the aforesaid twenty pounds parcel of the afore-
said one hundred and eighty marks of the farm of the town
aforesaid during the term ot twenty years thence next following
towards us and our heirs yearly in payment of the fee farm of
the same town shall be quit and discharged And that the same
Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men and commonalty and their heirs
and successors shall hold the town aforesaid quit and discharged
of the same twenty pounds towards us our heirs and successors
during the same term. And that notwithstanding any gift or grant
as aforesaid to the present Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men or com-
monalty of the town or their predecessors by us or our progenitors
or others of our kingdom of England expressed to be in existence
<)2 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
or any statute ordinance act or other thing to the contrary not-
withstanding In testimony &c. Witness the King at Leicester
the thirtieth day of May.
By writ of Privy Seal and of the date aforesaid.
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: 2do Ed. IV., p. i, m. 14.
of
iv,
IOTH JULY, 1462.
"PHESE letters patent, which are of the nature of an inspeximus
charter, inspect and confirm the charters of nth and 4ist
Henry III., 2yth Edward I., 8th Richard II., 3oth Henry VI.,
and 38th Henry VI.
The scribe of the Liber Custumarum copied these letters
patent in Latin into that book, commencing at folio io5a, herein-
after printed.
Translation.
Edward by the grace of God King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to all to whom these present letters come Greeting
We have inspected a charter of the Lord Richard the second
after the Conquest lately King of England made in these
words Richard by the grace of God [and so forth, repeating
the whole of the original charter of 8th Richard II., i4th June,
1385, printed before at page 68] We have also inspected the
letters patent of Henry the sixth lately in fact but not in right
King of England made in these words Henry by the grace of
God [and so forth, repeating the whole of the original charter of
3oth Henry VI., I2th March, 1452, printed before at page Si] We
have moreover inspected a charter of the aforesaid Henry the
LETTERS PATENT, 1462. 93
sixth lately King as is aforesaid made in these words Henry by
the grace of God [and so forth, repeating the whole of the
original charter of 38th Henry VI., I4th March, 1459, printed
before at page 84] Now we the charters and letters aforesaid
and all and singular the things contained therein ratifying the
same for us and our heirs as much as in us is do accept
approve and to our beloved the now Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the aforesaid town and their successors ratify and confirm in
manner as the charters and letters aforesaid do reasonably testify
In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made
patent Witness myself at Westminster the loth day of July in
the second year of our reign
For five marks [i.e., £3. 6s. 8d.] paid in the Hanaper
Suerendum
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in the
Public Record Office, where it is referred to as :—
Rot: Pat: 2do Ed. IV., p. 5 m. 26.
tybitnt of 1 8^ <&>wart> iv,
2ND MAY, 1478.
HP HE King by these letters patent granted that all future
mayors and escheators should take their oaths of office in
the town of Northampton, instead of before the barons of the
King's exchequer, in London. And the King further remitted the
before mentioned sum of £20 for the further term of 12 years,
after the expiration of the before mentioned term of 20 years.
Mr. Simon Bradfield, mayor in 1478-9, was the first sworn into
office in the town, by virtue of this grant.
Translation.
EDWARD by the grace of God King of England and France
and Lord of Ireland To all to whom these present letters shall
94 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
come Greeting Know ye that whereas the Lord Edward the
first our progenitor [The letters patent of the 2yth Edward I.,
27th May, 1299, hereinbefore printed at page 56, shortly recited
as far as relates to the appointment of the Mayor] WE con-
sidering the charges and expenses to which the said Burgesses
of our aforesaid town have for a long time sustained in taking
the oath of the office of Mayor aforesaid at the Exchequer of us
and of others our progenitors to the great impoverishment of the
same town have of our special grace granted to the now Mayor
Burgesses and commonalty of the aforesaid town and their suc-
cessors that neither they nor any of them shall from henceforth
present at the Exchequer of us or of our heirs any one by them
or any of them elected mayor in any wise to take before the
Barons of the same Exchequer the oath of the office of Mayor
or for the mayoralty of the said town But that every Mayor
of the same town to be hereafter elected shall annually within the
octaves of the Feast of Saint Michael next after his election
take such his oath faithfully to execute the said office of Mayor
or of the mayorship and all and singular the things concerning
the same office before the last Mayor there his predecessor and
the Recorder of the same town for the time being and the four
Coroners of the same town or two of their predecessors the
Recorders and Coroners or two of them at least for the time being
in the "Guihald" of the same town in all things well and faithfully
to observe keep and execute the same office without any personal
presentation or prosecution at the said Exchequer of us and our
heirs or elsewhere without the said town of Northampton to be
hereafter in anywise made for taking such oath of office AND
WE have moreover granted for us and our heirs aforesaid that
every such last predecessor of the Mayor of the town aforesaid
for the time being and the Recorder and Coroners or two at least
of them as is aforesaid for the time being may by these presents
have full power and authority to receive the oath of such Mayor
of the town aforesaid to be henceforth elected in form aforesaid
to be hereafter taken yearly within the aforesaid octaves for the
office of mayor or of the mayorship of the town aforesaid AND
WE WILL that every Escheator of the same town for the time
being shall every year for ever within the octaves aforesaid next
following the election of such mayor every year within the said
town and not elsewhere take his oath well and faithfully to
LETTERS PATENT, 1478. 95
execute the office of escheator in manner and form fit and con-
venient without that the said Escheator of the same town or
his successors be compelled to make any such his or their oath
without the same town otherwise than we have above granted
And we will that always every year within fifteen days next after
such election of the mayor of the town aforesaid we be certified
at the Exchequer of us our heirs or successors under the seal of
the mayor of the same town of Northampton of the name of the
Mayor and Escheator thereof And further whereas we on the
thirtieth day of May in the second year of our reign [the
letters patent of the 2nd Edward IV,, 3oth May, 1462, hereinbefore
printed at page 91, shortly recited as far as relates to the
remission of the payment of the annual sum of twenty pounds]
WE of our abundant grace have granted and these presents do
grant that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses men and commonalty
of the same town for the time being and every of them their
heirs and successors be yearly in the payment of the farm of the
same town acquitted and discharged towards us and our heirs
from the time of the expiration or ending of the said term of
twenty years for the term of twelve years next following the same
expiration or ending of the said twenty years from twenty pounds
parcel of the aforesaid one hundred and eighty marks yearly for
the farm of the aforesaid town And that the same Mayor Bailiffs
Burgesses men and commonalty and their heirs and successors
may hold the town aforesaid acquitted and discharged towards us
and our heirs from the said twenty pounds from the day of the
expiration or termination of the said term of twenty years for the
term of twelve years next after the same expiration or termination
although express mention of the true yearly value or of any other
value of the premises or of any of them or of any gifts or grants
heretofore made to the same Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men and
commonalty and their successors or to any one or more of their
predecessors and successors by us or by any of our progenitors
or predecessors heretofore Kings of England is not in these
presents made or any statute act or ordinance made to the
contrary notwithstanding IN testimony whereof we have caused
these our letters to be made patent Witness myself at West-
minster the second day of May in the eighteenth year of our reign
By the same King and by the authority of the
same Parliament. Morton
g6 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Indorsed.
Inrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer that is to say
amongst the records of the term of Saint Michael in the eighteenth
year of King Edward the fourth first roll on the part of the
King's Remembrancer
Inrolled also amongst the memoranda of the said Exchequer
that is to say amongst the presentments of the term of Saint
Michael in the year xviij King Edward iiijli R° vymno On the
part of the Rem. of the Treasury
These letters as far as they relate to the twenty pounds re-
leased to the Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men and commonalty of
Northampton for the term of twelve years are rendered void by
the letters patent of the 3Oth day of March in the first year of
the reign of King Richard the third whereby the King pardoned
remitted and released for himself and his heirs to the mayor
Bailiffs Burgesses men and commonalty aforesaid and their heirs
and successors the said sum of twenty pounds of the farm of
Northampton from the second year of King Richard III.
And they are quit
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on plain parchment, 23 inches wide
and 14! inches deep. Spaces have been left in the first line for
initial letters, which have not been inserted. The red and black
cord remains, but the seal has gone.
On the back is written : —
"2do Maij 1 8° Edri 4"
"The Charter of Edwd. 4th wherein is recited the Charter of
" Edwd. the first & it is hereby granted (inter alia) that the
" Mayor of Northampton shall for ever hereafter be sworn into
" his office within the Octave of Saint Michael in the Guildhall
" of the said town before the last Mayor and the Recorder for
"the time being & the four Coroners of the said town or two of
"them & not before the Barons of the Exchequer as formerly
" And also that the escheator of the said town shall likewise take
" the oath of office at the time aforesaid mentioned within the
" said town and not elsewhere."
"16"
of \et (JUcjfort m.
SOTH MARCH, 1484.
HPHESE letters patent recite that whereas the town had in
times past prospered, it was then in a piteous condition, the
inhabitants fallen into poverty, and almost half the town being
desolate. The King therefore remitted to the town for ever 50
marks of the farm of the town.
Translation.
RICHARD by the grace of God King of England and France
and Lord of Ireland To ALL to whom these present letters shall
come Greeting WHEREAS our most dear brother the Lord Edward
the fourth late King of England now deceased by his letters patent
which we have inspected [the letters patent of the 2nd Edward
IV., 3oth May, 1462, hereinbefore printed at page 91 ; and of
the 1 8th Edward IV., 2nd May, 1478, hereinbefore printed at page
93, are both shortly recited as far as relates to the remission of
the payment of the annual sum of twenty pounds parcel of the
before mentioned sum of one hundred and twenty pounds of the
farm of the town of Northampton for the periods of twenty and
twelve years respectively] Now FROM the lamentable information
of our beloved William Lynde155 the now Mayor of the town
aforesaid and the Burgesses and Bailiffs of the same town it hath
been sufficiently shown to us that their predecessors formerly
inhabiting the aforesaid town of Northampton in the remote times
of our noble progenitors formerly Kings of England after the first
William Lynde, or Lyne, was mayor of the town in 1484-5.
98 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
incorporation of the same town in their goods and means in divers
ways prospered and the town aforesaid so in every quarter was
inhabited that scarcely any house in the same remained desolate
or unoccupied so that one hundred and twenty pounds yearly due
to our said progenitors formerly Kings of England of the fee farm
of the town aforesaid long after the incorporation of the same by
the then Bailiffs of the same town for the time being could be
paid out of the rents profits and revenues arising and appertaining
within the same town to the payment of the fee farm aforesaid
without charges of their own proper goods and which town in
times now lately passed hath fallen into so great desolation and
ruin and the inhabitants of the same have fallen into poverty by
the misfortunes and great charges and no small inconvenience
labours and various expenses sustained and had and are so at
present so that almost half of the same town (which is grievously
to be deplored) remains desolate and destroyed and destitute of fit
persons to sustain the office of Bailiffs and the ordinary yearly
charges within the town aforesaid hereafter to be made or paid to
us or our heirs insomuch that the men and Burgesses and es-
pecially the Bailiffs of the same town for the time being daily
sustain so great and insupportable loss in payment of the aforesaid
fee farm of one hundred and twenty pounds which they and their
predecessors by the names of the men of the town of Northampton
for the fee farm of their town from time whereof the memory of
man is not were bound to pay and still are bound to pay to us
at the Exchequer of us and our progenitors aforesaid and other
our predecessors late Kings of England that the same Bailiffs for
the time being fifty three pounds six shillings and eight pence at
least yearly now and more in years past of their own goods
beyond the said yearly ordinary charges which they by reason of
their offices aforesaid have sustained and have been accustomed to
sustain within the town aforesaid were bound and still are bound
to pay to us and our progenitors and predecessors aforesaid on
account of such great and insupportable charges very many of the
burgesses and inhabitants of the town aforesaid who seemed fit by
their good conduct and means to sustain and occupy the aforesaid
office of Bailiffs of the town aforesaid and all charges incumbent
on the same before the times in which they thought they should
be elected to the same offices altogether withdrew with their
goods from the town aforesaid and daily on that account so with-
LETTERS PATENT, 1484. 99
draw so that within two or three years now ensuing few or no fit
men in their goods and means may be found (which God forbid)
to bear or exercise any such office within the town aforesaid as
aforesaid And as is likely to be the consequence that they will
scarcely be able to answer us or our heirs of any part of the fee
farm of the town aforesaid unless they are graciously succoured
by us WHEREUPON they have humbly besought us that we
would vouchsafe graciously to regard them with pity and extend
to them our abundant grace in the premises And which Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses are willing the said letters patent of the
said late King the date whereof is the aforesaid second day of
May in the eighteenth year aforesaid as to the aforesaid twenty
pounds pardoned to them for the aforesaid term of twelve years
by the same late King as is aforesaid to restore to our Chancery
to be cancelled to the intent that we would graciously vouchsafe
to grant our letters patent to the same now Mayor Bailiffs Bur-
gesses men and commonalty of the town aforesaid and their
successors in form following WE the premises considering and
certainly knowing the same to be true and for that because the
same now Mayor and Bailiffs and Burgesses the same letters patent
as to the aforesaid twenty pounds by the said late King for the
said term of twelve years in form aforesaid pardoned have
restored to us in our Chancery aforesaid to the intent aforesaid
to be cancelled And which letters are so there cancelled OF our
special grace and of our certain knowledge and mere motion have
pardoned remised and released and by these presents do pardon
remise and release for us and our heirs as much as in us lies to
the aforesaid now Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses men and commonalty
of the said town of Northampton and their heirs and successors
for ever by whatsoever name they were incorporated or called or
known fifty marks [£33. 6s. 8d.] parcel of the aforesaid one
hundred and twenty pounds of the farm of the town aforesaid
of \vhich the same Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses Men and Common-
alty of the said town or either of them yearly is or are charged
towards us in our Exchequer of Record by the name of the
men of the town of Northampton or other name whatsoever
for the farm of their town And also we grant to the same
Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses Men and Commonalty of the same
town and their heirs and successors that they of the aforesaid
fifty marks parcel of the aforesaid one hundred and twenty
H 2
100 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pounds for the farm of the town aforesaid from the feast of Saint
Michael last past hitherto and henceforth yearly for ever towards
us our heirs and successors in payment of the fee farm of the
same town be altogether quit and discharged and that the same
Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses Men and Commonalty and their heirs
and successors hold the town aforesaid quit and discharged of the
same fifty marks towards us our heirs and successors from the
aforesaid Feast of Saint Michael last past hitherto and hence-
forth for ever without the impeachment molestation interruption
or grievance of us our heirs or successors Justices Barons of
our Exchequer Sheriffs Escheators Receivers or other the officers
or ministers whomsoever of us our heirs or successors or either of
them without any account answer or reason or any other thing
to us our heirs or successors aforesaid or either of them for the
aforesaid fifty marks or any part thereof hereafter to be rendered
paid or done in any wise howsoever Although express mention
of the true yearly value of the premises or either of them or
of other gifts or grants to the same Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses
Men and Commonalty and their successors or either of them or
to any of their predecessors and their successors heretofore made
by us or by any of our progenitors or predecessors late Kings
of England in these presents be not made or any statute act
or ordinance to the contrary thereof made passed or ordained
or any other thing cause or matter whatsoever notwithstanding
IN testimony whereof wre have caused these letters to be made
patent WITNESS myself at Nottingham the thirtieth day of
March in the first year of our reign
By writ of privy seal and of the date aforesaid
by authority of Parliament
Wheler
Indorsed.
Inrolled in the memoranda of the Exchequer of the first year
of the reign of King Richard the third to wit Amongst the
records of the Term of Easter Roll on the part of the
Treasurer's Remembrancer.
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on plain parchment, 25^ inches
wide and 15^ inches deep. Spaces are left in the first line for
LETTERS PATENT, 1484. IOI
the insertion of the capital letters, which have not, however, been
executed. A fragment of the great seal of England in brown wax
still remains attached.
On the back is written : —
" 30° Marcij j° Rici 3tij
" Grant whereby Richd 3d remits to the Corporation of
" Northton and their Successors for ever 50 marks parcel of
"their annual ffee ffarm Rent of i2on"
"17"
on of Qltf of
4TH HENRY VII.
1489.
T)Y this Act of Parliament the mayor for the time being and
the past mayors were authorised to choose 48 of the most
wise, discrete, and best disposed inhabitants of the town. And
these 48, with the mayor and bailiffs were each year to choose
the new mayor.
Item quedam alia Billaformam Item another bill in the form
Actus simili? in se continens of a similar act was passed in
porrecta fuit Drio Regi in Parlia- the aforesaid Parliament of our
mento fldco ex parte InRitancin lord the King on the part of
Ville NorRmp que in se seriem the inhabitants of the town of
v^vo^ sequencium continebat : — Northampton which is contained
in the following words : —
Forasmoche as of late greate divisions discencions and discorde^
have growen and been had as well in the Townes and Boroughes
of Norhampton & Leycestre as in other dyv9s Townes & Bourghs
Corporat within this Realme of England amongest the Inhitaunte^
of the same for the eleccion and choyse of Maires Bailies and
other officers within the same by reason that such multytude of
the seid Infiitaunte^ beyng of lytill substaunce and haveour and
of no sadnes discrecion wisdome ne reason which oft in nombre
102 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
exced in theire Assembles other that been approved discrete
sadde and well disposed psones have by their multitude and by
their bandis confideracys exclamacions and hedynesse used in the
seid Assembles caused great hobles divisions and discordes among
theym selfe as well in the seid eleccions as in assessyng of
other lawfull charges and imposicions amonst theym to the subv9cion
of ye gode rule gov9naunce and old politik demenyng of the seid
Burghes and oft tymes to the greate brech of the Kyngs Peace
within the same to the fere drede and manyfolde pill} that
therby may ensue For reformacion whereof and for the more
quiete and restfulness of the Kyng3 Subgett} hereafter and
for the conservacion of the Kyngs Pease more surely to be
observed and kept Be yt Ordeyned enacted and stablished by
thadvyse and assent of the Lordes spual and tempall and comens
in this psent Parliament assembled and by anctorite of the same
that from hensfourth the eleccions of Maires Baillyffs and other
officers and also the assessyng of all lawfull charges and im-
posicions that herafter shalbe made and had in the Burgh of
Norhampton shall be had made and used after the fourme
folowyng that is to sey the Maire of the Town of Norhampton
and his brethern for the tyme beyng that then oftymys past have
ben Mares of the same or the more part of theym uppon their
othes shall do name and chose xlviij psones of the most wise
discrete and best disposed psones Innitaunt^ within the seid
Towne by theire discrecions other then afore that tyme have ben
Maires and Baillies of the same And the same psones pt of
theym from tyme to tyme herafter to chaunge when and as oft
as they shall seme most necessarie and behouffull Which psones
so by theym chosen and named and the seid Maire and his
brothern and such parsones as then have been Mayres and
Bailies of the seid town for the tyme beyng or the more parte of
theym shall have and make yerly eleccion of all the Maires
and Bailies that hereafter shall be Maires and Baileffs of the seid
Bourgh and Towne And the eleccion by theym or the more part
of them so made to stond and be goode and effectuell in the
Lawe yerly herafter for ev9 to endure in like man9 fourme and
condicion as yf the eleccions werde made by such wey man9
and fourme as aforetyme hath ben used and accustumed in of
and for the same eleccions in the seid Bourgh and Towne
And ov9 this that all other officers of the seid Towne that by
ACT OF PARLIAMENT, 1489. 103
the dutie of theire offices owe to be attendant in the Courtes
of the same Bourgh. and Towne or upon the Maire and Maires
and Baillyffes that nowe be or that herafter in the said Borough
shall be to be electe chosen and made only by the seid Maire
and his brethern for the tyme beyng that afore that in tymes
past have been Maires of the seid Bourgh and Towne or the
more parte of them without assent assemble of any other psones
Inhitauntes of in or for the same Provided alway that if in the
seid eleccions or eny of them the voises be divided and eqall for
sendry ptis Then the voise of the Maire for the tym beyng to
stond and be reputed for ij voises in the same eleccion And
yf eny eleccion or eleccions herafter happ to be made of Maire
or Maires Bailies or other officers of the seid Towne in other-
wise then by this Acte afore ys reherced Then that eleccion or
eleccions to be taken voide and of no strength ne effecte And
over this be it ordeyned by the said Auctorite that yf eny of
the Inftitaunte^ nowe beyng or that herafter shalbe inhabited in
the seid Bourgh and Towne attempt or do to the breche im-
pedyment or lette of this psent Acte That then the seid psone
or psones to forfeit the some of x1' the moyte thereof to be to
the Kyng and the other moyte to be to the Maire of the seid
Towne for the tyme beyng to employe to the charges of the
seid Towne And that yt shall be leeful to the Maire of the
seid Bourgh and Towne for the tyme beyng to comytte ev9y
sucn psone or psones to prison within the same Town and
Bourgh their to remayn without Bailie or Maynpise tyll the
seid some or somes of money be fully levyed and paied
Pui quidem Bille plecte $ Then the same bill being
intellecte p Dmu Regem auctor- read and passed by the King
itete $ assensu pdcis ut sequitr by the authority and consent
respondebatr aforesaid received the following
reply
Le Roy le vuelt The King wills it
This document is not with the muniments of the borough,
the preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as:—
Rot : Parl : ° Hen : VI L, n.
of 1 1 10 5)^*2 VII+
22ND DECEMBER, 1495.
~DY this charter the King granted the mayor, bailiffs, and
burgesses leave to elect a discreet man and learned in the
law as recorder of the town, and two others as justices of the
peace, who should have power to hear and determine felonies
and misdeeds ; that writs and warrants should be directed to,
and executed by them ; that they should have all fines ; and
lastly, that they should have two fairs every year each of which
was to continue for eight days.
Translation.
HENRY by the grace of God King of England and France
and Lord of Ireland To all and singular Archbishops Bishops
Abbots Priors Dukes Earls Barons Justices Sheriffs Mayors
Bailiffs Reeves Constables and other our officers ministers faithful
liege men and subjects whomsoever as well within liberties as
without to whom these present letters shall come Greeting KNOW
ye that we of our special grace at the humble supplication of
our beloved and faithful subjects the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of our town or borough of Northampton in relief and succour of
the same town and the poor inhabitants of the same of our
mere motion and certain knowledge have granted and for us
and our heirs as much as in us lies by these presents grant
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of our aforesaid
town of Northampton and their successors that the same Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgessess and their successors the future Mayors
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the same town every year henceforth for
ever on the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel may elect and
prefer a discreet man and learned in the law as Recorder of
the town aforesaid and two others of their more honest circum-
spect and more learned co-burgesses who being so elected and
from year to year or from time to time as need shall be to be
CHARTER, 1495. I05
elected together with the aforesaid Mayor for the time being be
and be made for ever Justices and keepers of the peace of us
and our heirs within our town aforesaid the suburbs precincts
and fields of the same so that the same Mayor Recorder and
two Burgesses three and two of them of whom the aforesaid
Recorder always be one may have full power and authority to
keep and cause to be kept the peace of us and our heirs and
also the statute and ordinances there and at Cambridge of hunters
workmen artificers servants hostellers beggars and vagabonds and
other mendicant men who call themselves travelling men and
likewise the statutes and ordinances at Westminster in the first
and second years of the reign of Henry the fourth late King
of England for not giving liveries of signs of companies to
knights esquires or valets and other liveries of clothes nor in
anywise howsoever using the same liveries And also a certain
statute passed against Lollards in the Parliament of the Lord
Henry the fifth late King of England at Leicester And also a
certain other statute likewise passed in the Parliament of the
same Henry the fifth at Westminster of counterfeiting clipping
washing and other falsifying of the money of our land And
also all other ordinances and statutes made and to be made for
the good of the peace of us and our heirs and the quiet rule
and government of the people of us and our heirs in all and
singular their articles within the town liberty and precinct of
the same according to the force form and effect of the same
and to cause all those who shall act against the form of the
same ordinances and statutes and all those who shall threaten
any of the people of us or our heirs of their bodies or with
firing of their houses to come before them to find sufficient
security for the peace and their good conduct towards us and
the people of us and our heirs and if they refuse to find such
security then to cause them safely to be kept in the prison of us
and our heirs within the town aforesaid until they shall find such
security And further that they three or two of them of whom
the aforesaid Recorder we will to be one be the Justices of us and
our heirs to enquire by the oath of good and lawful men of the
town liberty and precinct aforesaid by whom the truth of the mat-
ter may be the better known of all and all manner of felonies
trespasses forestallings regratings and extortions within the town
aforesaid the liberty and precinct aforesaid by whomsoever and in
106 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
anywise howsoever made or committed and which henceforth shall
happen to be done there And also of all other and singular things
within the town liberty and precinct aforesaid in anywise howso-
ever done attempted or perpetrated and which henceforth shall
happen to be there done attempted or perpetrated and may have
full authority and power to enquire hear and determine all and
all manner of felonies trespasses and other misdeeds whatsoever
and all matters plaints defects causes and other things whatsoever
within the said town liberty and precinct of the same town
heretofore or hereafter committed or happening as fully and
entirely as the keepers of the peace of us and our heirs or the
justices of us or our heirs to keep the peace in any county of
England and also to hear and determine divers felonies trespasses
and other misdeeds committed in any county of England assigned
or to be assigned concerning such felonies trespasses and misdeeds
and other the premises in any county of our kingdom of England
by virtue of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid or of any
ordinances and statutes heretofore made or to be made according
to the force form and effect of the letters of us and our heirs to
them thereof made and to be made ought and hath been accus-
tomed to be enquired of and to hear and determine all and
singular the premises and other things whatsoever within the
town liberty and precinct aforesaid made attempted or perpetrated
or henceforth to be made attempted or perpetrated which by such
Justices or keepers of the peace of us and our heirs and such
Justices of us and our heirs to hear and determine such felonies
trespasses and misdeeds in any county aforesaid by virtue of the
ordinances and statutes aforesaid and our letters aforesaid ought
and are accustomed to be discussed and determined may be
heard and determined by the same Mayor Recorder and two
Burgesses so to be chosen and nominated three or two of them
of whom the said Recorder for the time being we will to be
one according to the law and custom of our kingdom of England
and the form of the ordinances and statutes aforesaid
So THAT all the writs precepts and other warrants
to be made for the premises and every of them
be directed to the Ministers of the town aforesaid
and by them be executed without any writ precept
or warrant of the Sheriffs or Coroners within the county of North-
ampton thereof in anywise howsoever to be directed So also that
CHARTER, 1495. 107
the keepers of the peace of us and our heirs and such Justices
of us and our heirs assigned and to be assigned to hear and
determine such felonies trespasses and misdeeds done or perpe-
trated or to be done or perpetrated in the county of Northamp-
ton aforesaid or either of them do not enter within the town
liberty or precinct aforesaid to do anything which to keepers of
the peace or such Justices there pertain to be done nor that they
nor either of them thereof in anything intromit themselves nor either
of them intromit himself in anywise howsoever MOREOVER WE
WILL and of our grace aforesaid and of our certain knowledge
and mere motion aforesaid grant for us and our heirs aforesaid
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their successors
that they for ever may have all and singular fines issues re-
demptions and amerciaments lost and forfeited and to be lost and
forfeited before the aforesaid keepers of the peace of us and our
heirs and the Justices of us and our heirs assigned to hear and
determine felonies trespasses and misdeeds aforesaid within the
town liberty and precinct aforesaid in anywise howsoever forfeited
or to be forfeited AND FURTHER of our more abundant grace
and of our certain knowledge and mere motion we have granted
and by this our present charter confirmed for us and our heirs
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses that they and their
successors for ever may have two fairs or marts within the
town aforesaid every year severally in manner and form following
to be holden to wit that the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
may have and hold one fair or mart of the said two fairs or
marts at the said town of Northampton every year for ever on
the feast of Saint George the Martyr [April 23rd] and on the
day next preceding the same feast and also to continue by six
days next immediately following such feast And the other fair
of the aforesaid two fairs on the feast of Saint Hugh the Bishop
[November iyth] and on the day next preceding the same feast
and likewise to continue by six days next following the same
feast with all liberties and free customs to such fairs or marts
appertaining or belonging Provided the same fairs or marts be
not to the nuisance of other neighbouring fairs or marts WHERE-
FORE WE WILL and firmly command for us and our heirs that
the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their successors
for ever have and hold the fairs or marts aforesaid at the
aforesaid town of Northampton as is aforesaid to continue
108 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
every year for ever with all liberties and free customs to such
fairs or marts or either of them appertaining provided the same
fairs or marts be not to the nuisance of neighbouring fairs or
marts as is aforesaid Moreover of our special grace we grant
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town
aforesaid that they and their successors may have and hold enjoy
and use all and singular such liberties and other franchises
privileges customs rights things profits and emoluments with their
appurtenances whatsoever as the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses or either of their predecessors by whatsoever names
they were known have had and before the date of these presents
have been used to have and as they or either of them hereto-
fore by reason of any gift or grant to them made by any
of our progenitors or ancestors Kings of England or otherwise
had and used or from time whereof the memory of man is not
were accustomed to have although the same Mayor Bailiffs or
Burgesses or their predecessors have been accustomed to abuse
the same liberties franchises customs rights things profits and
emoluments or either of them or have not used the same or
either of them THESE BEING WITNESSES our most dear eldest
son Arthur Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earl of
Chester156 The Most Reverend Fathers J the Cardinal Archbishop
of Canterbury 15? our Chancellor of England and Thomas Arch-
bishop of York158 The Venerable Fathers in Christ R Bishop
of Durham 159 Keeper of our Privy Seal and O Bishop of
156 Arthur Tudor, son of King Henry VII., was born 20th September, 1486,
and at once created Duke of Cornwall. He was created Earl of Chester and
Prince of Wales, ist December, 1489. The young Prince married Katherine of
Aragon on the I4th November, 1501. He died the following April.
157 John Morton, the Clerk of the Rolls, became Bishop of Ely in 1478, and
was translated to Canterbury in 1486. He died in 1500, and was buried in Canter-
bury Cathedral. " He spoke both gracefully and mightily ; he was eminently skilled
" in the law ; he had a comprehensive understanding, and a very retentive memory ;
" and the excellent talents with which nature had furnished him were improved by
" study and discipline."
i8 Thomas Scott, or Rotherham, became Bishop of Rochester in 1468; in 1471
he was translated to Lincoln, and in 1480 to York. He died in 1501, at Cawood,
Yorkshire, and was buried in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral.
159 Richard Fox became Bishop of Exeter in 1487, of Bath and Wells in 1491,
of Durham in 1494, and of Winchester in 1500. He founded Corpus Christi College,
Oxford. Bishop Fox died in 1529, and was buried in his own chantry in Win-
chester Cathedral.
CHARTER, 1495. 109
Exeter160 and our most dear second son Henry Duke of York161 and
our most dear cousin Edward Duke of Buckingham 162 and also our
most dear cousins John Earl of Oxford163 Great Chamberlain of
England Henry Earl of Northumberland164 and Thomas Earl of
Derby165 Constable of England and also our beloved and faithful
Sir John Dynham of Dynham Knight our Treasurer of England
Robert Willoughby of Broke Steward of our Household and Sir
Giles of Daubeney Knight Chamberlain of our Household and
others GIVEN by our hand at Westminster the twenty second
day of December in the eleventh year of our Reign
By the King himself and of the date aforesaid
by authority of Parliament
Clerk
This charter, which is with the muniments of the borough, is
written in Latin on plain parchment, 31 inches wide and 18
inches deep. Spaces have, as usual, been left in the first line
for capital letters, which have not been filled in. Almost the
whole of the great seal of England remains attached to the silk
and silver gilt twisted cord.
On the back is written : —
"22° Decembris 11° Hen. 7mi
loo Oliver King, chaplain to King Henry VII., and Dean of Windsor, became
Bishop of Exeter in 1492, and was translated to Bath and Wells in 1495. He
restored, or rather rebuilt Bath Church. Bishop King died in 1503, and was
probably buried at Windsor.
161 Henry Tudor, the second son of King Henry VII., was born 28th June,
1491 ; created Duke of York in 1494. On the death of his brother Arthur, in 1502,
he succeeded to the title of Duke of Cornwall. Next year he was created Earl of
Chester and Prince of Wales; and on the 22nd April, 1509, he succeeded as King
Henry VIII. In 1501 he was said to be " A goodly younge prince."
162 Edward Stafford, son of the second Duke of Buckingham, was born in 1478,
and was restored Duke of Buckingham in 1486. He was styled Earl of Stafford,
Buckingham, Hereford, Essex, and Northampton. He was beheaded ryth May, 1521.
163 John de Vere, the second son of the twelfth Earl of Oxford, was born in
1443, and succeeded as Earl in 1462. He was " valentissimus miles," attainted
in October, 1474, and afterwards restored to all his honours. He died in March, 1513.
164 Henry Algernon Percy was born in 1478, and succeeded as fifth Earl of
Northumberland in 1489. He was judge of the lists at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold (loth — 23rd June, 1520). He died in 1527.
165 Thomas Stanley, the son of Thomas, Lord Stanley, was born in 1435, and
created Earl of Derby in 1485. He dressed " in a rich gowne, furred with sables,
" a marveolous riche cheyne of gold many fowldes abowte his necke." He died
in 1504.
110 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
" The Charter of Hen. yth for choosing yearly for ever at the
"ffeast of S'. Michael a Recorder of Northton and 2 Burgefses
"who with the Mayor for the time being are appointed Justices
" of the pearce of the sd Town for ever and they 3 or 2 of them
" (of which the Recorder is always to be one) have power to
"enquire into hear and determine all ffelonys Trespafses &.c.
" comitted within the Libertys . Herein alfo is a Grant to the
" Corporation & their succefs for ever of all ffines Jfsues &c.
" forfeited before the sd Justices & alfo a Grant of 2 ffairs
"yearly for ever (vizt) on the if easts of S*. George the Martyr
" & St. Hugh the Bp : & on the day next before & for 6 days
" next after each of the said if easts."
"18"
of
vn+
IITH FEBRUARY, 1496.
'HpHESE letters patent, which are in the nature of an inspeximus
charter, inspect and confirm the charters of nth and 4ist
Henry III., 2yth Edward I., 8th Richard II., the letters patent
of 30th Henry VI., the charter of 38th Henry VI., and the
letters patent of 2nd Edward IV.
Translation.
[Hjenry by the grace of God [K]ing of [EJngland and [F]rance
and [L]ord of [IJreland [T]o all to whom these present letters
shall come Greeting [W]e have inspected the letters patent of
the Lord Edward the fourth of noble memory late King of England
made in these words Edward by the grace of God [and so
forth, repeating the whole of the original letters patent of 2nd
Edward IV., loth July, 1462, printed before at page 92] Now
we the charters and letters aforesaid and all and singular the
things therein contained ratifying and approving the same for us
and our heirs as much as in us is do accept and approve and to
our beloved the now Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the aforesaid
LETTERS PATENT, 1496. Ill
town and their successors ratify and confirm in manner as in the
charters and letters do more reasonably testify In testimony
whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent
Witness myself at Westminster the iith day of February in the
nth year of our reign
( William Elyot & )
Exd. by ] JL \ Clerks
' I Gilbert Batcheler )
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on a plain skin of parchment, 36
inches wide and 22 inches deep. Spaces have been left in the
first line for the initial letters, which have not been completed.
The green and white cord, interwoven with silver gilt wire
remains, but the seal has been lost.
On the back is written : —
" ii .ffeb. ii .Henry yth.
" A Grant for confirming to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses
11 of the Town of Northampton several former Grants within
"recited made to them from the Crown and (amongst others)
"that of the i6th March nth Hen: 36 for exempting them from
"the Payment of Toll and Lastage throughout all England Si
"the Sea Ports"
"19"
of
vnu
i4TH FEBRUARY, 1511.
HPHESE letters patent, which are also of the nature of an
inspeximus charter, inspect and confirm the charters of iith
and 4 ist Henry III., 2yth Edward I., 8th Richard II , the letters
patent ot 3oth Henry VI., the charter of 38th Henry VI., the
letters patent of 2nd and i8th Edward IV., and the charter and
letters patent of nth Henry VII.
Translation.
Concerning Confirmations for the Burgesses of Northampton.
The King to all to whom &c Greeting We have inspected
the letters patent of the Lord Henry the seventh of illustrious
112 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
memory late King our father made in these words Henry by
the grace of God [and so forth, repeating the whole of the original
letters patent of nth Henry VII., nth February, 1496, printed
before at page no] We have also inspected fhe letters patent
of the Lord Edward the fourth our progenitor late King of
England made in these words Edward by the grace of God [and
so forth, repeating the whole of the original letters patent of the
1 8th Edward IV., 2nd May 1478, printed before at page 93] We
have moreover inspected a charter of the aforesaid Lord Henry
the seventh of illustrious memory late King of England our
father made in these words Henry by the grace of God [and
so forth, repeating the whole of the original charter of nth
Henry VII., 22nd December, 1495, printed before at page 104]
Now we the charters and letters aforesaid and all and singular
the things therein contained ratifying and approving the same
for us and our heirs as much as in us is do accept and approve
and to our beloved the present Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the aforesaid town and their successors ratify grant and
confirm as the charters and letters aforesaid reasonably testify
In testimony whereof &.c, Witness the King at Westminster
the xiiij day of February
For ten marks [i.e. £6. 135. 4d.] paid into
the Hanaper
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the
borough. The preceding transcript has been made from the copy
now in the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Undecima pars Confirm 2do Hen. VIII .
of 5$ gwrp vin+
IQTH MARCH, 1514.
"DY these letters patent the King remitted for ever the sum
of £22, part of the farm of the town of Northampton,
together with all arrears then due and owing.
Translation.
[HJenry by the grace of God King of [E]ngland and [FJrance
and Lord of [IJreland To all to whom the present letters shall
come Greeting Whereas the Mayor Bailiffs Men Burgesses and
Commonalty of our town of Northampton in our county of
Northampton are charged towards us yearly in our Exchequer
in the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds for the fee farm
of the same town as well by the name of the men of our town
aforesaid as by the name of the Burgesses of our town aforesaid
Know ye that we of our special grace and certain considerations
us especially moving and of our certain knowledge and mere
motion have pardoned remised and released and by these presents
for us and our heirs and successors do pardon remise and release
for ever to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs Men Burgesses and
Commonalty of our town of Northampton in the county aforesaid
and every of them their heirs and successors for ever or by
whatsoever other name they are or were called or deemed in-
corporated twenty two pounds parcel of the aforesaid one hundred
and twenty pounds yearly of fee farm for the town aforesaid
of which the same Mayor Bailiffs Men Burgesses and Commonalty
of the said town or some of them is or are charged towards
us yearly in our Exchequer aforesaid of record by the name of
the Burgesses or Men of our town aforesaid or any other name
whatsoever for the fee farm aforesaid And moreover of our
more abundant grace we grant by these presents to the same
I
114 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Mayor Bailiffs Men Burgesses and Commonalty of our town
aforesaid and their heirs and successors that they of the afore-
said twenty two pounds parcel of the aforesaid one hundred and
twenty pounds of the fee farm aforesaid yearly from the Feast
of Saint Michael the Archangel in the twenty fourth year of the
reign of the Lord Henry the seventh late King of England our
father hitherto issuing growing due and unpaid towards us our
heirs and successors be quit and altogether discharged And
further we pardon remise and release all and singular the arrears of
the same twenty two pounds parcel of the aforesaid one hundred
and twenty pounds for the fee farm aforesaid now being behind to
the same Mayor Bailiffs Men Burgesses and Commonalty of the town
aforesaid and all and singular the same arrears we give and grant
to them by these presents To hold to them of our gift as well to
be retained in their own hands or to be received by the hands of
the Sheriffs Escheators Receivers Bailiffs or other our officers and
ministers whomsoever without the impeachment molestation inter-
ruption disturbance or grievance of us our heirs or successors
Justices Barons of our Exchequer Sheriffs Escheators Receivers or
other the officers or ministers whomsoever of us our heirs or suc-
cessors or either of them and without any account answer or reason
or any other thing to us our heirs and successors aforesaid or
either of them for the aforesaid twenty two pounds or any part
thereof or for the arrears of the same in any wise hereafter to be
rendered paid or done although express mention of the true yearly
value of the premises or any of them or of other gifts or grants
to the same Mayor Bailliffs and Burgesses and to the same
Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses Men and Commonalty and their suc-
cessors or either of them or to any of their predecessors
heretofore made by us or by any of our progenitors or
predecessors late Kings of England be not made in these presents
or any statute act or ordinance to the contrary thereof made
passed or ordained or any other thing cause or matter whatsoever
in any wise notwithstanding In testimony whereof we have
caused these our letters to be made patent Witness myself at
Westminster the nineteenth day of March in the fifth year of
our reign
By writ of privy seal and of the date aforesaid
by authority of Parliament
Yong
LETTERS PATENT, 1541. 115
Indorsed.
Inrolled with memoranda of the exchequer of the sixth year
-of the reign of King Henry the eighth to wit amongst the
records of the term of Easter beginning the said sixth year
Roll 4 on the part of the Treasurer's Remembrancer.
This pardon of the fee farm of the town of Northampton
was prosecuted and obtained by William Alward John Janes
otherwise called John Bukby late Bailiffs of the town aforesaid
and other inhabitants of the same and was allowed upon the
account of the said late Bailiffs in the term of Easter in the
sixth year of King Henry the 8th.
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin, on plain parchment, 30 inches
wide and 12 inches deep. Spaces have been left in the first line
for the initial letters, which have not, however, been filled in.
The cord worked through the lower edge is composed of green
and white silk, twisted with silver gilt wire. The seal has
been lost.
On the back is written : —
" 19° Marcij 5° Hen. 8vi
" Grant whereby Henry the Eighth remits to the Corporation
•" of Northampton and their Succefsors for ever 22" part of their
"annual ffee ffarm Rent of 120""
"20"
"pdon Henrici viij p xxij" "
I 2
of
vi+
2yTH OCTOBER, 1541.
'HPHESE letters patent also, simply inspect and confirm the
* charters of nth and 4ist Henry III., 2yth Edward I, 8th
Richard II., the letters patent of soth Henry VI., the charter of
38th Henry VI., the letters patent of 2nd and i8th Edward IV.,
the charter and letters patent of nth Henry VII., and the
letters patent of 2nd Henry VIII.
Translation.
DWARD THE SIXTH BY THE
GRACE OF GOD OF ENGLAND
FRANCE AND IRELAND King-
Defender of the Faith and the
supreme head of the church in
England and Ireland To ALL
to whom these present letters
shall come Greeting WE HAVE
INSPECTED the letters patent of Henry
the eighth formerly King of England
our dearest father made in these words
Henry by the grace of God [and so forth,
repeating the whole of the original let-
letters patent of 2nd Henry VIII., I4th
February, 1511, printed before at page in.]
Now WE the charters and letters aforesaid and all and
singular the things therein contained ratifying and granting the
same for us and our heirs so much as in us is do accept and
approve and to our beloved the now Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the town aforesaid and their successors ratify grant and con-
firm as in the charters and letters aforesaid do more reasonably
testify IN TESTIMONY whereof we have caused these our letters
to be made patent WITNESS myself at Westminster the 2yth
day of October in the first year of our reign
For seven pounds paid into the Hanpio
Exd pp me Wiftm Ermyfted
Georgm Throkmarton
The initial E is a reproduction of that on the charter.
LETTERS PATENT, 1541. 1 17
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on two skins of parchment, 37
inches wide and 22 inches deep.
The first line is highly ornamented. The initial E encloses a
portrait of the infant king, clothed with an ermine lined robe,
and seated on his throne, above which is written VIVAT . REX.
The King is crowned, and holds in his right hand the sceptre,
and in his left the orb, but he does not wear the insignia of the
garter. The other initial letters are beautifully drawn and orna-
mented. Over the line are the following heraldic devices : — A
shield bearing a Saint George's cross, within the garter, on
which is written, " Hony soyt qvy mal y pense." A double
rose surmounted by a crown ; a lion sejant guardant, bearing a
banner, on which is a fleur de lys, on the dexter ; and a dragon
sejant, bearing a banner, on which is also a Saint George's cross,
on the sinister side. A fleur de lys, without crown. And a port-
cullis, also without crown. The inner skin is unornamented. The
green and white silk cord still remains, but the seal is missing.
On the back is written : —
"21"
" Edward. 6."
i5TH OCTOBER, 1554.
n^HESE letters patent, again inspect and confirm the charters
of nth and 4ist Henry III., 27th Edward I., 8th Richard
II., the letters patent of 3oth Henry VI., the charter of 38th
Henry VI., the letters patent of the 2nd and i8th Edward
IV., the charter and letters patent of nth Henry VII., and the
letters patent of 2nd Henry VIII., and ist Edward VI.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Translation.
HI LIP AND MARY by the grace of
God King and Queen of England
France Naples Jerusalem and
Ireland Defenders of the Faith
Principals of Spain and Sicily
Archdukes of Austria Dukes of
Milan Burgundy and Brabant
Counts of Hasberg Flanders and
Tirol To ALL to whom these
present letters shall come Greeting
WE HAVE INSPECTED the letters
patent of confirmation of the
Lord Edward the sixth sometime
King of England our dearest brother in these words
Edward the sixth by the grace of God [and so forth,
repeating the whole of the original charter of ist
Edward VI., 2;th October, 1541, printed before at
page 116] Now WE the charters and letters aforesaid and all and
singular the things therein contained grant and ratify so far as in
us lies for us and our heirs to be held by our beloved the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the said town of Northampton and their
successors as the charters and letters aforesaid do more reasonably
testify IN TESTIMONY whereof we have caused these our letters
to be made patent WITNESS ourselves at Westminster the fifteenth
day of October in the first and second years of our reign.
Le Hare
/- Richard Rede ^
) and \ Clerks.
Examined by us
St. Winton .166
( James Dangson '
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on two skins of parchment, 33
inches wide and 21 inches deep.
The initial P is a reproduction of that on the charter.
166 The signature of the famous Stephen Gardiner, who was appointed Bishop
of Winchester in 1531, kept a prisoner in the Tower during the reign of King
Edward VI., and restored by Queen Mary in 1553, and appointed Chancellor the
same year. He died in 1555.
LETTERS PATENT, 1554. IIQ
The first line is highly ornamented, it bears a striking re-
semblance in style to the letters patent of ist Edward VI., and
is probably by the same penman. Within the initial P is a full
length representation of the King seated on his throne, wearing
an open crown, and clad in robe with ermine tippet, bearing in
his right hand the sceptre, and in his left the orb ; above the
throne is written VIVAT.REX. Within the initial M is a half
length representation of the Queen, wearing an arched crown ;
above the throne is written VIVAT . REGINA. The other initial
letters are also beautifully drawn and ornamented. Over the
first line are the following heraldic devices : — A triple rose
crowned. The lion and dragon both sejant, each bearing a
banneret, on which is the fleur de lys. The rose and pome-
granate used by Katherine of Aragon, uncrowned. And a fleur
de lys, also uncrowned. The second skin is plain.
Part of the great seal of England, as used by Queen Mary,
remains attached to the green and white silk cord.
On the back of this document is written only : —
n r\r\ »
of
3RD APRIL, 1599.
TT was not long before a new charter was required by the
corporation. In 1595 the assembly agreed that there " shalbe
" suite made forthwith for the renewing and enlarging of the
" Charter and liberties of this borough that ys to saye that the
" Maior for the tyme being maye be Justice of Quorum within
"the same towne and liberties thereof. And the Bayliffes for
" the tyme being maye levye and take tole and custome of all
" manner of cattell bought or solde within the same towne ;
"And that also the Maior Bayliffes and Burgesses maye have
" and injoye suche other liberties and priviledges graunted them
" as heretofore they have sued for ; and that the charges in this
" suite shalbe born out and defrayed by the town echamber from
"tyme to tyme everie kynde of waye."
120 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
On the 5th January, 1598-9, it was notified to the assembly
that a sum of eighty pounds was needed to pay for the
procuring and bringing down of the new charter. It was there-
upon proposed and carried that the money should be raised by
selling in advance the hay crops of the West Holmes and
Abbots Meadow (part of the lordship of Duston) for the next
two years.
These letters patent were therefore granted by the Queen.
They do not inspect and confirm the previous grants, but are
drawn on new and more extended lines.
The Queen granted that Northampton should be a free and
corporate town, ruled by mayor, two bailiffs and company of
eight and forty, and a recorder. That the mayor bailiffs and
burgesses should have the custody of the orphans of burgesses.
And that they should have seven fairs during the year, and a
market three times during the week.
This grant being very lengthy and verbose is here only
shortly abstracted.
A bbreviated Translation .
Of a Grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of
Northampton and their successors for ever.
THE QUEEN To ALL to whom &c GREETING WHEREAS
Northampton is a very ancient and populous town and from
ancient times was incorporate and the inhabitants have enjoyed
privileges the grants of former Kings which have been made to
them by various names some as the Burgesses of Northampton
some as the Mayor and Commonalty and some as the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses AND WHEREAS our beloved subjects the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses have besaught us to show them
grace and by letters patent to confirm the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses and to add further liberties WE therefore graciously
desiring the amelioration of the town and that it should be a
town of peace to the dread and terror of the evil and the reward
of the good grant that Northampton shall be a free town of itself
and that the Burgesses shall be one body corporate by the name
of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of Northampton
LETTERS PATENT, 1599. 121
and that they shall be persons fit and in the law capable to have
and possess lands and tenements hereditaments and franchises and
also goods and chattels And also to give demise and grant the
same AND to plead and be impleaded answer and be answered
in any courts in all plaints and pleas AND to have a common
seal and break the same and have a new one AND WE grant
that three of the more honest and discreet Burgessess shall be
elected as Mayor and Bailiffs of the town AND that there shall
be forty eight good and discreet men dwelling in the town who
have never been Mayor nor Bailiffs who shall be called the
Company of Eight and forty AND that the two Bailiffs and
such other Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs together
with the Company of Eight and forty shall be called the Common
Council of the town and shall assist and aid the Mayor in
all things touching the town AND further that the Mayor Bailiffs
and such Burgesses of the town with the Company of Eight and
forty shall have power to frame such lawrs as to them seem good
and wholesome for the conduct of the Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses
and artificers of the town and for the rule and victualling of the
town And for levying money for the government of the lands
and tenements of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses AND that
they may impose and assess reasonable pains and penalties
imprisonment of body or amerciaments as to them shall seem
reasonable AND shall levy the same to the use of the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses Which laws we will to be observed so
nevertheless that the same are not repugnant to the laws or
statutes of the kingdom of England AND for the better execution
of these grants we assign and nominate our beloved Thomas
Humfrey167 the now Mayor to be the first and present Mayor
AND that he shall continue in the office of Mayor from the date
of this charter until the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel and
until another Burgess shall be appointed and sworn to the office
provided he so long live AND we assign and constitute our
beloved Thomas Bradford168 and Francis Fisher168 the then
16jr Thomas Humfrey was Mayor of the town in 1587-8, when there was a
great flood, which reached almost to St. John's Hospital, "so that all the south
" quarter, both men, women, and children, were constrained to be brought up into
" the town on horseback. It drove away many houses and much household stuff."
Thomas Humfrey was Mayor again in 1598-9.
38 Thomas Bradford was afterwards Mayor of the town in 1610-1, and Francis
Fisher in 1608-9.
122 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Bailiffs to be the first and present Bailiffs AND that they shall
continue in the office of Bailiffs until the feast of Saint Michael
the Archangel or until two other Bugesses shall be appointed
provided they so long live AND WE grant that the Mayor for the
time being and other Burgesses who have been Mayors shall
nominate and elect such Burgesses as shall seem to them necessary
to be the forty eight Burgesses commonly called the Company of
Eight and forty who shall continue for their natural lives unless
amoved according to the custom of the town AND WE grant that
the Mayor and Bailiffs of the town for the time being and such
Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs or the greater part
of them shall have power within four days next after the first day
of September called the feast of Saint Giles to assemble in the
Guildhall or some other convenient place in the town and there to
continue until they have in accordance with the statute passed in
the 4th Henry VII. [hereinbefore printed at page 101] elected and
nominated one Burgess to be the Mayor for the year following
who before he shall be admitted to execute the same office shall
take his oath "upon the Holy Evangelists of God yearly on the
" Utas169of the said feast of Saint Michael the Archangel" before
the last Mayor or the Recorder according to ancient custom to
faithfully execute the same office until the feast of Saint Michael
the Archangel next following or until another Burgess should be
appointed AND WE further grant that the Mayor and Bailiffs
and such Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs and the
Company of Eight and forty shall have power to assemble them-
selves in the same manner as before mentioned and elect two of
the Company of Eight and forty to be Bailiffs for one year
following the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel who shall take
a similar oath before the Mayor or Recorder AND WE further
grant that if it shall happen that the Mayor shall die or from his
office be amoved it shall be lawful for the Bailiffs the Burgesses
who have been Mayors or Bailiffs and the Company of Eight and forty
to elect another Burgess in his place and that they shall be able in
a similar manner to elect Bailiffs in the place of any dying or
being amoved and that they shall be able in a similar manner to
elect Burgesses in the place of any of the Company of Eight and
169 The Utas was the seventh day after the feast, or the eighth if the day of the
feast be included.
LETTERS PATENT, 1599. 123
forty dying or being amoved as aforesaid AND WE further grant
that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses may " have for ever one
"honest and discreet man learned in the laws of this Kingdom of
"England" to be the Recorder of the town AND WE nominate
our beloved Christopher Yelverton170 our Sergeant at law to be
the first and present Recorder of the town to continue until the
feast of Saint Michael the Archangel next following if he so long
live and after his death or amoval the Mayor Bailiffs and greater
part of the Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs and the
Company of Eight and forty may nominate another from time to
time as Recorder who shall also take an oath AND WE further
grant that the Mayor and Burgesses or the greater part of them
shall have license to nominate such Bailiffs and other officers for
the good service of the town as they shall think necessary AND
WE grant that the Mayor and Recorder the Burgess who has
been last Mayor and one other circumspect Burgess whom the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses who have been Mayors and Bailiffs
or the greater part of them shall choose to be the Justices to
keep the peace in the town and the statutes of artificers and
weights and measures and that they or any two of them (of
whom the Mayor or Recorder is to be one) shall hear and deter-
mine all trespasses or other things which to the office of Justice
of the Peace belong as amply as other Justices of the Peace in
any other city can do PROVIDED the Mayor Recorder or the
two Burgesses shall not determine any murther felony or other
matter touching the loss of life or member within the town
without our special mandate AND WE further grant to the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses "all those lands tenements and
" hereditaments whatsoever commonly called or named the chamber
"lands" lying near the town of Northampton which they have
hitherto held to hold the same to the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses for ever rendering therefore yearly to the Queen such and
the like rents and services which have heretofore been paid or
rendered for the same AND WE desiring to provide for the safety
170 Christopher Yelverton purchased the Manor of Easton Mauduit in 1579. He
was one of the representatives of the county at the Parliaments held at Westminster
in the I3th and 3Qth Elizabeth. He was also Sergeant-at-Law, Speaker of the
House of Commons, and a Judge of the Queen's Bench. Christopher Yelverton
married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Catesby, of Ecton, by whom he had issue
Henry, of whom more hereafter, who succeeded to the Manor of Easton Mauduit
on his father's death in 1613.
124 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of orphans and infants who shall happen to be in the town
and that their goods shall be faithfully kept during their
minority Grant that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses shall
have the custody of the orphans of any Burgesses and shall
collect and cause to be kept in the common treasury by the
Chamberlain all goods and chattels belonging to the said orphans
and deliver the same with increase to them in the same manner
as is done in the city of London With all rights of actions on
account of the same AND WE further grant to the Mayor Bailiffs
and Burgesses all manors tenements tolls customs franchises and
jurisdictions which they hold use or enjoy by virtue of any
charters or customs rendering for the same to us such rents and
services as they have been accustomed to pay or render without
let or hindrance by us or our Justices Sheriffs or Escheator AND
WHEREAS we being credibly informed that the Mayor of the town
"from time whereof the memory of man is not" has been accus-
tomed to receive recognisances according to the form of the
statute merchant and the statute of Acton Burnell GRANT that
the Mayor shall have authority to receive such recognisances and
we constitute our beloved George Goldwell the present common
Clerk of the town commonly called the Town Clerk to be the first
and present Clerk and to receive and write such recognisances to
continue from the date of this charter to the next feast of Saint
Michael the Archangel "if he shall so long live and well conduct
"himself" and until another fit person shall be sworn in AND
that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses shall according to custom
yearly within four days next following the feast of Saint Giles
elect a fit person to be common Clerk or Prothonotary to write
such recognisances AND WE further grant to the Mayor Bailiffs
and Burgesses that they for ever may have yearly seven fairs or
marts The first to be on the feast of Saint George the Martyr
[April 23rd] the second on the feast of Saint Hugh the Bishop
[November ijth] the third on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary [January ist] the fourth on the feast of the Annunciation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary [March 25th] the fifth on the feast
of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary [December 8th] the
sixth on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
[August 1 5th] and the seventh on the feast of Saint James the
Apostle [December 2yth] Each such fair to continue for the day
preceding and the day following such feast AND WE grant to the
LETTERS PATENT, 1599. 125
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses that they may hold a free market
within the town on the Wednesday Friday and Saturday in every
week by the year with tolls and liberties pertaining thereto
so that the same be not to the nuisance of neighbouring fairs
and that they may levy reasonable tolls for animals and other
things sold in such markets which they may hold and enjoy
without the let or hindrance of us or our Justices Sheriffs or Es-
cheators ALSO WE will &c WITHOUT fine in the Hanaper &c
ALTHOUGH express mention &c IN TESTIMONY &c WITNESS
the Queen at Westminster the third of April
By writ of privy seal &c
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the Borough.
The preceding transcript has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot: Pat : 41™ Eliz. p. i.
tybttnt of 1 6^ Jfames !+
20TH APRIL, 1618.
r~PHESE letters patent are very like those granted by Queen
Elizabeth, though somewhat wider. The hamlets of Cotton
End, West Cotton, and Saint James' End are for the first time
included in the precincts of the town. Five burgesses, who had
been previously mayors, are also appointed as aldermen to act
with the mayor. The time for the election of the mayor and other
officers is changed from a period of four days after the feast of
Saint Giles [September ist] to a period of ten days from the first
of August. The jurisdiction of the mayor, recorder and two
other burgesses is also increased to enable them to enquire and
determine all murthers felonies and other crimes without special
commission. The sheriff and county justices are directed not to
execute precepts or exercise jurisdiction in Cotton End, West Cotton,
or Saint James' End. And the mayor and burgesses are authorised
126 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
to hold a court of record. The mayor is to be clerk of the
market. And the town is to have the goods of all felons. All
freemen of the town are exempted from serving on juries in the
county of Northampton, or elsewhere out of the town. Freemen
though not living in the town, may be chosen to any office, and
are liable to be fined or imprisoned if they do not accept office.
All persons, except burgesses, are forbidden to sell any goods in
the town. And the corporation received a license in mortmain
to purchase and hold lands not exceeding in value fifty pounds
annually.
The other provisions of this grant are similar to those contained
in the previous grant of Queen Elizabeth.
Abbreviated Translation.
JAMES by the grace of God of England Scotland France and
Ireland King Defender of the Faith &.c. To ALL to whom these
present letters shall come sends Greeting WHEREAS the town of
Northampton is a very ancient and populous incorporated town
and the Bailiffs Burgesses and Inhabitants have held liberties
franchises and privileges being the grants of former Kings and
Queens of England AND WHEREAS the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses have besought us that certain places near the town called
Cotton End and West Cotton 171 in the parish of Hardingstone
and a place called Saint James End173 in the parishes of Duston
and Dallington (such places being then out of the jurisdiction of
the town) where malefactors sometimes concealed themselves and
many artificers not being free burgesses resided and practised
their arts to the prejudice of the Burgesses should be annexed to
the town and the inhabitants placed under the government of the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses AND that all the previous grants
to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses should be confirmed WE for
171 These suburbs joined the town on the south, and formed part of the parish
of Hardingstone, in the hundred of Wymersley. They were incorporated in the
borough precincts by this grant, but appear to have passed back to the county at
some subsequent period.
172 This suburb joined the town on the west, on the road leading to Rugby,
and formed part of the parishes of Duston and Dallington, in the hundred of No-
bottle Grove. It was incorporated in the borough precincts by this grant, but
appears to have passed back to the county at some subsequent period.
LETTERS PATENT, 1618. 127
, At the speciall
the amendment of the town and the keeping ot the peace there requeft of sir
. r i J • U HenryYelverton
of our special grace and at the instance of our beloved and taitn. Knight His
Majesty's att-
ful servant Sir Henry Yelverton Knight the Attorney General and tomy General
Recorder or the
Recorder of the town grant that the town of Northampton and Towne.
the precinct thereof shall stretch itself and comprise the several Extent f e
places of Cotton End West Cotton and Saint James' End and town.
that the inhabitants and the houses and edifices in these places Annexation of
. , . . , . , . r J , Cotton End and
shall be and be reputed to be within the precinct or the town weft Cotton &
(hereafter called the town) and that the residents within these
places shall be under the rule of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
AND WE further grant that the town of Northampton shall be a Thattthe Towne
with the partes
free town of itself and that the Burgesses shall be a body cor- JJJJ
porate and politic by the name of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses Name of the
of the town of Northampton with perpetual succession power to CorP°ration-
hold lands and tenements goods and chattels and to grant and ^Yfta
assign the same and to plead and be impleaded in any courts of
justice and to use a common seal and to break or change it or
make a new seal AND that three of the more honest and discreet lan&cto
Burgesses shall be elected as and be called the Mayor and Bailiffs Fmpieaded.
of the town and also that there shall be forty eight honest and i. Mara.
discreet men dwelling in the town who have never been Mayors The company of
\ Eight and forty.
nor Bailiffs of the town who shall be called the company of eight
and forty And that the Mayor Bailiffs and Company of Eight and
forty shall be called the Common Council of the town and shall Comon Counfeii.
assist the Mayor in all matters touching the town And that the
Mayor and Bailiffs of the town for the time being and such
Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs together with the
company of eight and forty or the greater part of them (and of
which greater part the Mayor and five other Burgesses who have
been or hereafter shall be Mayors commonly called Aldermen of the
town whom we will to be six) shall have authority to frame such Power to make
J lawes.
reasonable laws and ordinances as shall seem to them good whole-
some and necessary for the rule of the town and for declaring in what
manner the inhabitants of the town shall conduct and employ them-
selves and for the good rule and amelioration of the town and the
victualling of the same and for levying money for our use and the
uses of the town And for the preservation and government of
the lands and hereditaments granted to the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses and their successors And that the Mayor and Bailiffs
for the time being and such Burgesses who shall have been
128 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Mayors or Bailiffs and the company of eight and forty or the
Aidermen°rtoabe greater part of them (and of which greater part the Mayor and
of the quorum. guch other five Burgesses who shall have been Mayors commonly
called Aldermen we will to be six) as often as they shall frame
such laws may impose such pains and penalties of body or
TO punifh tranf- anierciaments upon all delinquents against such laws as to them
fmJriSnSents sha11 seem reasonable and may levy the fines by distress or
Amnceisament. otherwise for the use of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses*
without accounting to us for the same All which laws we will to
and1 AmlrS? be observed provided there is nothing therein contained repugnant
SfSSrX.c. to the laws or customs of the kingdom of England Notwithstanding
the statute of the 4th of Henry VII. [hereinbefore printed at page
101] concerning the company of eight and forty or any other
statute or charter to the contrary AND WE nominate our beloved
toS^Mw?*' George Rainsford^3 the now Mayor to be the Mayor from the
date of this charter to the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel
and until another Burgess shall be appointed AND WE nominate
Roger wiikin- our beloved Roger Wilkinson and Abraham Myners [or Minard] the
My?er8IBay. now Bailiffs to continue for a like term AND the Mayor for the
time being with such Burgesses who have been Mayors shall elect
Mayor and and make such Burgesses as shall seem to them necessary to be
Aldermen to J
Chusethe48. the company of eight and forty which Burgesses shall continue
48 to coSue °f for life unless for a reasonable cause they shall be amoved from
unless fbr'reas- the office AND the Mayor for the time being with such Burgesses
they be removed who have been Mayors of the town or the greater part of them
as shall have power to amove from his office for reasonable cause
Mayor shall such Burgess who shall be Mayor AND the Mayor for the time
remove any of being with such Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs or
ye then counfell
Election of ye the greater part of them shall have power every year within ten
ye present * y days next following the first day of August to assemble in the Guild-
maiorand . . . ,
bailiffs within hall or some other convenient place in the town and there to continue
x days after the ., . .
i of August. until they have in accordance with the aforesaid statute of 4th
Mayor and
Henry VII. elected one of the Burgesses to be Mayor who before
sembled not to . ,
newM™4111 ye executing such office shall take his " oath upon the Holy Evange-
beencnofen. " lists of God vearly on the Utas of the feast of Saint Michael the
iviayor to take
fheprecebdeefnte "Archangel" before the last Mayor or the Recorder according to
Mayor or
Recorder.
* Second skin.
173 George Rainsford, or Raynsford, was Mayor of the town in 1595-6, 1603-4
and 1617-8.
LETTERS PATENT, l6l8. I2Q
ancient custom well and faithfully to execute the office of Mayor
of the town aforesaid until the next feast of Saint Michael or
until another Burgess shall be appointed AND that the Mayor
Bailiffs and such Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs bei
and the Company of Eight and forty shall have power in a similar & Burgeses
manner to elect two of the Company of Eight and forty to be MliorsV&
Bailiffs who shall take a similar oath And further that if the by the 48.
Mayor die within the year or from his office be amoved it shall f
be lawful for the Bailiffs and the Burgesses who have been Mayors
or Bailiffs and the Company of Eight and forty or the greater part Death or re-
r J j o r movall of ye
of them to nominate another Burgess in the place of him so dead Maior-
or from his office amoved AND if the Bailiffs shall die or from J^ath or re-^
their office be amoved the Mayor and Bailiffs and the Burgesses Bailiffs-
who have been Mayors or Bailiffs or the greater part of them The Bailiffs
shall in a similar manner elect one or two of the Company of Ou?theh48?n
the Eight and forty in the place of the Bailiff or Bailiffs dead
or amoved and they shall take a similar oath AND if any of
the Company of Eight and forty shall die or be amoved (whom
for reasonable causes shall be amoveable at the pleasure of the
Mayor and such Burgesses who have been Mayors) it shall be
lawful for the Mayor and Burgesses who have been Mayors or
the greater part of them in a similar manner to elect one or more
of the Burgesses in the place of the Burgess or Burgesses so dead
or amoved and they shall take a similar oath AND WE further Recorder,
grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses that they may have for
ever one honest and discreet man learned in the laws of the king-
dom of England to be called Recorder of the town AND WE Sjr Henry
nominate Sir Henry Yelverton1?4 as the first Recorder of the
town for the term of his natural life and that after his death the
Mayor Bailiffs and greater part of the Burgesses who have been
Mayors or Bailiffs and the Company of the Eight and forty may
elect an honest and discreet man as Recorder of the town and that
174 Henry, the son of Christopher Yelverton, was born at Easton Mauduit in 1566,
and educated at Oxford, and Gray's Inn, London. Henry Yelverton was one of
the representatives of the town at the Parliaments held in 39th Elizabeth, and 1st
James I. In 1613 he was made Solicitor-General, and received the honour of
knighthood. He succeeded Sir Francis Bacon as Attorney-General in 1617. For
offending the King he was degraded and imprisoned in the Tower ; but being soon
released, he was appointed Judge of Common Pleas. Sir Henry Yelverton died
in 1629, and was buried in Easton Mauduit Church, where there is a long inscrip-
tion to his memory.
K
130
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Election of ye
Chamblens by
the Maior &
Aldermen.
The Mayor
Recorder pre-
cendent Mayor
& Aldermen to
be fuftices of
ye peace.
Mayor and
Recorder to
heare and
determyn
murders
felonyes &c.
Without Com-
miffion or
speciall warrant
from the King.
No forraine
Justice of peace
to intermeddle
in ye Towne.
Tho : Martyn
Tho : Cooper
Juftices of peace
he who shall be so elected shall exercise the office of Recorder till
the feast of Saint Michael then next following having first taken an
oath AND THAT they shall have authority to elect so many and
such Chamberlains* and other officers for the good service of the
town as they have been accustomed to do MOREOVER WE grant
that the Mayor and Recorder of the town for the time being and
the Burgess who was the last Mayor and one other of the more
honest Burgesses of the town as the Mayor and Bailiffs of the
town and such Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs or
the greater part of them shall elect shall be the Justice and
Justices to keep the peace and keep and correct the statutes con-
cerning vagabonds artificers and labourers weights and measures
in the town and do all other things which pertain to the office of
Justice AND THAT the Mayor Recorder and such two Burgesses
and any three of them (of whom the Mayor and Recorder shall
be two) shall have full power to inquire hear and determine within
the town all murders felonies misprisons riots routs oppressions
extortions forestalling regratings trespasses offences things matters
and articles and other things which to the office of Justice of the
peace pertain or which ought to be enquired of together with the
punishment thereof And to do and execute all things within the
town in as ample a manner as could be done by Justices of the
peace in the county of Northampton or elsewhere by virtue of
any commission or act of Parliament And this without any
special commission The letters patent of the 41 st of Queen
Elizabeth [hereinbefore printed at page 119] or any other letters
patent acts or customs to the contrary notwithstanding AND also
that the Justices in the county of Northampton within the town
or the places of Cotton End West Cotton and Saint James' End
do not in anywise intromit or exercise jurisdiction of matters
which to Justices of the peace of the town by virtue of these
letters patent appertain And that the Bailiffs of the town may
execute the precepts of the Mayor Recorder or Justices within the
same as any Sheriff by mandate of a Justice of the peace has
been accustomed to do in any county of the kingdom of England
AND FURTHER we nominate George Rainsford the now Mayor Sir
Henry Yelverton Knight the Attorney General now Recorder and
Thomas Martin and Thomas Cooper two Burgesses to be the
* Third skin.
h
LETTERS PATENT, 1618. 131
present Justices of the peace with full powers to act as aforesaid
AND WE grant that every Mayor for the time being shall be
the Escheator within the town during the time he shall be Mayor
having taken his oath well and faithfully to execute the office of Efch°eatorbe
Escheator and that no other Escheator presume to intromit in the
town AND WE grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
that they may for ever have and hold one Court of Record in ur
the Guildhall to be holden before the Mayor and Bailiffs for the "aJ vfStly
time being of all pleas plaints and actions as well real as
personal and mixed and of any debts or trespasses whatsoever
with views of frankpledge and leets within the town on such
days and in such manner as hath been accustomed and render
judgment and make execution thereof AND that all juries im-
pannelled inquisitions and other things may do and execute any
act touching the causes aforesaid AND the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses shall have to the use of the town all manner of
amerciaments arising from the same And that they may have
return of all writs and precepts of the King and summonses writts? °f
of the Exchequer within the town so that no Sheriff nor Bailiff
of us presume to enter the town or precincts or execute sum-
monses or attachments of Pleas of the Crown unless in default
of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses AND that the Mayor for
° - • The Mayor
time beinj? shall be Clerk of the Market and after he has taken to be cierke of
ye market.
his oath he shall occupy that office and perform all things to
the same appertaining without molestation by any other officer
AND for the amelioration of the town because the walls are in
great decay we grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses all Grant of ail
I Hues fynes &
manner of fines and amerciaments of all the Burg-esses resiant amerciaments
before Juftices
and non-resiants within the town forfeited or lost before the °f Assize
Juftices of
Justices of us assigned in the county of Northampton and before peace &c-
the Justices of us assigned to take the assizes and deliver the
gaol and to keep the peace and hear and determine felonies
and trespasses in the County of Northampton and before the
Clerk of the Market and before the Justices or Commissioners*
itinerant and the Justices assigned for the statutes of sewers in the
County of Northampton and before the Mayor Recorder and two
Burgesses for the time being or three of them being Justices of
the peace within the town and before the Mayor being the Clerk
* Fourth skin.
K 2
132 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of the Market within the town and before the Steward and Mar-
shal of the Household of us and before the several Escheators
as well of the county as of the town of Northampton and also
before other Justices of us AND FURTHER we grant to the
Satt3!sa£f Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses " all and singular deodands 175
" chattels estrays goods and chattels debts rights and credits of
forfeited?*"068 " felons fugitives felons of themselves 176 persons outlawed and put
" in exigent and others whomsoever attainted convicted or con-
" demned from time to time " in the town And all forfeitures
profits and recognizances taken before the Mayor Recorder or
other Justices And that it should be lawful for them to seize
such amerciaments by their Ministers without writs or processes
from the Exchequer any law or custom to the contrary notwith-
standing And the same to have and to hold to the proper use
of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses without disturbance by us
or our Justices Sheriffs Escheators Coroners or others and for
Power to sue in levying the same we grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
the kinges name . . . . .
for iffues fynes m their name or in our name to recover the same against any
amerciaments .
Recognizances person in any court oi Record and the same to convert to the
Mandamus to use of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses And we command our
officer, of ye Treasurer Chancellor Under Treasurer and Barons of the
ye recoveerriga&er Exchequer and other officers that they procure such writs as
sS'fynes &c. may be required according to the custom of the Exchequer
TO deliver them against any person charged And after levying to pay the same
out of the Exch: . .
to ye Mayor &c. to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses without account And that
the present grant or an enrollment thereof shall be sufficient
warrant in this behalf AND FURTHER we grant to the Mayor
Chamberiands Bailiffs and Burgesses all those lands and hereditaments called
Chamber Lands situate near the town of Northampton which the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses have held by any incorporation of
any letters patent or grants "And also all and singular wastes
"void grounds purpestures and approvements within the town"
To hold the same to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses rendering
therefore yearly to us such rents and services which to us or
Orphantes our progenitors have been paid AND we desiring "to provide
175 Deodand is a thing forfeited, as it were, to God. Thus an instrument or
thing by which a person meets a violent death is to be dedicated to God, that is
sold for the benefit of the poor.
176 Persons who committed suicide.
LETTERS PATENT, 1618. 133
11 for the safety defence and management of the orphans and
" infants" who shall happen to be in the town and that their
goods and chattels shall be preserved and laid out for the ad-
vantage of such orphans and infants during their minority grant Maior & Aider,
that the Mayor and his brethren who have been Mayors of the the cuftodie
of Orphants.
town shall have the custody and government of the orphans Goodes&chateis
of anv Burgess dying in the town with authority to levy and LpTFn the
• f iii • r comon Trafury
keep in the common treasury or the town by the chamberlain of of ye Towne.
the town goods chattels and legacies found or being of any orphans
of any Burgesses happening to die and the same to lay out
and use for the advantage of the same orphans and that they
pay and deliver the increase and profits thereof to the orphans
at such age and in the same manner as is used in the city of
London with such actions and remedies for the ravishment of
any orphans in the town and all such officers for the better
government of the orphans their goods and chattels which have
been used in the city of London with power to execute and do
such things touching the orphans and their goods and chattels as
have been accustomed to be done in the city of London AND
WHEREAS we have been credibly informed that the Mayor and his
successors by whatsoever names they have been called or incor- Maior to take
3 J statute
porated "from time whereof the memory of man is not to Merchant.
the contrary " have raised and received recognizances between
merchant and merchant and made execution according to the
statute of merchants and the statutes of Acton Burnell in that
case made and provided Now WE therefore grant and confirm
that the Mayor may have full power and authority to receive
recognizances and make execution thereof according to the said
statute of merchants and the said statute of Acton Burnell AND
WE nominate our beloved Tobias Coldwell the now Common Clerk Toby Coidweii
Town Clerk &
of the town commonly called the Town Clerk to be the first and ciarke of ye
* a _ Statutes.
present Clerk to receive and write the recognizances and to con-
tinue in the office of Clerk from the date of these letters patent
to the feast of Saint Michael next if he so long live and well
conduct himself and until some other proper person be elected ac-
cording to the custom of the town And that the Mayor and such
Burgesses who have been Mayors of the town according to the
custom of the town or the greater part of them nominate within
ten days after the first day of August a fit man to be Town Clerk
AND WE grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses that they 7 faires'
134
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
1. St. George.
2. St. Hughe.
3. The birth of
our lady.
4. Annunciation
of our lady
<J. Conception of
the Virgin
Mary.
6. Affumpton of
our lady.
7. Saint James
dale "
Markett dales.
Wenfdaye
Frydaie &
Saterdaye
weekly.
Toll granted.
Exempton
from juries
out of the
Towne.
may for ever have seven fairs or marts yearly within the town to
be holden in the following manner and form to wit That the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses hold the first on the feast of Saint
George the Martyr [April 23rd] the second on the feast of
Saint Hugh the Bishop [November iyth] the third on the feast
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary [January ist] the
fourth on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary [March 25th] the fifth on the feast of the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary [December 8th] the sixth on the day of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary [August I5th] and the
seventh on the feast of Saint James the Apostle [December 2yth].
Each fair to commence on the day next preceding and to be con-
tinued on the day next following each feast AND ALSO that
the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses may as heretofore accustomed
"have and hold a free market on every Wednesday Friday and
" Saturday in every week by the year for ever with toll and all
"liberties courts of Piepowder177 and free customs" so that such
fairs and markets be not to the nuisance of neighbouring fairs
and markets AND we command that the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses may for ever have and hold such fairs and markets and
levy such reasonable tolls or tributes for beasts animals and other
things sold or bought in the fairs and markets aforesaid as of
right are levied in any town borough or city in the county of
Northampton AND THAT they may hold and enjoy all the said
liberties and free customs according to the effect of these letters
patent without impediment by us or by our Justices Sheriffs Es-
cheators or other Bailiffs or Ministers AND WE further grant that
the Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses and free men of the town shall not
be impannelled in any appeals juries assizes or inquisitions before
any Justices assigned to take assizes or writs of Nisi Prius or
to hear and determine treasons felonies or misdeeds within the
county of Northampton or any other Justices or before the Com-
missioners of the Sewers or any other Commissioners or the
Escheator or other Bailiffs or ministers of us out of the town or
forfeit amerciament unless the same juries assizes or inquisitions
touch us MOREOVER WE grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
that if any person being a Burgess or free man shall be lawfully
177 Courts held in the market where those who came with " dusty feet " could
obtain immediate justice.
LETTERS PATENT, l6l8. 135
elected to exercise any office in the town and such person (having fPr
had due notice of such election) refuses to exercise the office to t
which he has been elected that then it shall be lawful for the TO fyne Smyt
i\ T i i T-> 11 -\T shall refuse to
Mayor and such Burgesses who have been Mayors or the greater take vppon him
... i_ i ' • i the office where-
part or them to impose reasonable amerciaments upon such to he is chosen,
refusing as to the Mayor and Burgesses or the greater part of
them shall seem reasonable And such person refusing to pay
such amerciaments to commit to prison within the town and con-
tinue in prison until he shall pay such amerciaments to the use of
the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses notwithstanding the said statute
of Henry VII. [hereinbefore printed on page 101] or other statute
and notwithstanding that such person at the time of his election
shall not be a resiant dweller in the town so only that he should
be a Burgess or free man of the town AND THAT it shall be lawful
for the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses by their officers to put them-
selves in seizin of the same amerciaments by distraining the goods
and chattels of such person to the use of the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses without impediment AND further that no merchant arti- That no foray-
ner shal sel by
ficer tavern keeper or brewer or other exercising: any art or any fetayie any
° J J wares within
pedlar or petty chapman (who is not a Burgess) selling any wares ^t hTty me&°'
or woollen or linen cloth (a certain linen cloth called housewives of ffaires-
cloth only excepted) or other merchandize enter the town or
presume to use any house shop or standing within the town for
exercising their arts or for sale of their wares (except at the times
of fairs and marts) under such pains and penalties as may be
lawfully inflicted on such delinquents AND MOREOVER WE grant to Licence to
the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses special license and authority of JSSmayne to
. . , . . . . , . 50 li value per
acquiring and possessing messuages lands tenements and other here- annum,
ditaments as well of us as of any others who did not hold of us
immediately in chief nor by Knights' service so that the same do not
exceed the clear yearly value of fifty pounds the statute for not
putting lands or tenements to mortmain or any other statute to the
contrary notwithstanding With power to give grant bequeath or
alienate such tenements or hereditaments AND FURTHER WE
grant that all letters patent charters and confirmations customs S°|[fir3S£ons
and ordinances of our famous progenitors Kings or Queens of ar
England which the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses have reasonably
held or exercised by the name of the Mayor and Commonalty of
the town or the name of the Mayor Burgesses and Commonalty
of the town or by the name of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
!^6 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Grant and con- of the town of Northampton shall be ratified and confirmed
faUdV'tentes To hold the same to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the
free fifhinge &c. town Q£ Northampton for ever rendering therefore yearly to us
the like rents or services which had been paid or answered to us
refutuution0to or our ancestors AND WE grant that the Mayor Bailiffs and
i1hbeert!esrmer Burgesses shall be restored to all the liberties franchises and
HbtfensJTcafeeof free customs which they previously enjoyed notwithstanding
that they may not have used the same Without let or impedi-
ment of us or our Justices Sheriffs Coroners or Escheators
Without fine in the Hanaper
By writ of Privy Seal
Yonge
This charter is written in Latin on five skins of parchment,
33 inches wide and 25 inches deep.
The first skin is very highly illuminated. Within the initial
J is a portrait of the King seated on his throne, crowned; clad
in a crimson robe, lined with ermine ; and wearing the chain,
garter, and George attached to a blue ribbon appearing under
the cloak of the order of the garter; in his right hand he bears
the sceptre, and in his left the orb. Above the upper line in
the centre, are emblazoned the royal arms ; — Quarterly, first and
fourth grand quarters, FRANCE MODERN, and ENGLAND quar-
terly ; second grand quarter, SCOTLAND ; and third grand quarter
IRELAND ; within the garter, supported by lion and unicorn.
Round the edge of the skin are the following heraldic designs : —
A lion statant gardant or, imperially crowned, the crest of
England. On an imperial crown, a lion sejant affronte gu.,
imperially crowned, holding in the dexter paw a sword, and in
the sinister a sceptre, both erect and proper, the crest of Scot-
land. And the badges : — Rays or, descending from a cloud
arg., first used by Edward III. A falcon arg., within a fetterlock
closed or, used by Edward IV, who ordered that his son,
Richard, Duke of York, should bear the same badge with the
fetterlock open. A falcon arg., crowned and holding in the
dexter talon a sceptre or, standing on the stock of a tree gold,
out of which sprout both red and white roses, used by Anne
Boleyn, and also by her daughter Queen Elizabeth. A crowned
fleur-de-lys or.
LETTERS PATENT, 1618. 137
The second, third, and fourth skins are unornamented.
The fifth skin, like the first, is highly illuminated, with eight
shields, interwoven with representations of flowers, fruit, birds,
butterflies, insects, and reptiles. Four of the shields are identical, and
bear the arms of Northampton : — Gu., on a plain point vert, a tower
ar., (not triple towered) supported by two lions rampant guardant
or. The other four shields are also identical: — Arg., three lions
rampant guardant gu., a chief of the second, a mullet sa., for
difference, YELVERTON ; above each of these four shields is
written: — " Henricus Yeluerton Miles Alturnatus D. Regis Gen-
" eralis Recordator."
Almost the whole of the great seal of England, in brown
wax, remains attached to the silver and silver gilt plaited cord.
On the left hand margin of each skin are notes of the
contents of the document in English, as here printed.
It is only indorsed : —
"23"
of
3RD AUGUST, 1663.
HPHE corporation this year obtained a new grant from the King.
After the letters patent had been received the general
assembly ordered that those persons who had entered into a bond
for procuring money to defray the charges for the same, which
amounted to £170, or thereabouts, as appeared by the bill then
read, should have security of the corporation to bear them out
therein.
These letters patent are very similar to those of the i6th
James I., of which a full abstract is printed on page 125;
the following translation is therefore very much condensed. The
corporation continued to act under this grant until 1796, in con-
sequence of the grant of the 35th Charles II., proving abortive.
138 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Abbreviated Translation.
Charter of Confirmation to the Mayor and Commonalty of
Northampton.
THE KING to all to whom &c Greeting WHEREAS the town
of Northampton is an ancient and populous town and has been
possessed of divers privileges Wherefore the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses have humbly besaught us to confirm the grants of our
progenitors with certain additions KNOW ye that our augmen-
tations to the said town have been made out of our great
affection for the same AND WE WILL that for keeping the
peace and for the good government of the town of our special
grace certain knowledge and mere motion we grant and con-
firm that the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses shall be the
present Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of Northampton and
the franchises thereof AND THAT Northampton shall be a free
town AND THAT the Burgesses shall be one body corporate
by the name of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town
of Northampton with perpetual succession and in law persons
capable to possess lands and franchises goods and chattels And
to plead and be impleaded in any courts AND to have a com-
mon seal and break and change the same for a new one AND
ALSO WE WILL that three of the more honest Burgesses be
elected as Mayor and Bailiffs of the town And that there shall
be forty eight good and discreet men dwelling in the town who
have never been Mayors nor Bailiffs who shall be called " The
Company of eight and fforty " who with the Mayor and Bailiffs
shall be called the Common Council of the town and shall assist
the Mayor AND WE WILL that the Mayor Bailiffs and Company
of Eight and forty together with three other Burgesses of the
town (who shall have been Mayors) commonly called Aldermen
of whom four shall be a quorum with full power and author-
ity to frame such laws as shall appear to them necessary
and good for the conduct of the burgesses artificers and inhab-
itants of the town And for the victualling of the same And
that they may impose fines or penalties AND WE NOMINATE
John Brayfeild 178 to be the Mayor of the town from the present
178 John Brayfeild, or Brafield, was elected mayor on the ipth September, 1662,
in lieu of William Spencer, who was then put out of office by the regulation of
King Charles.
LETTERS PATENT, 1663. 139
time until the next feast of Saint Michael the Archangel and
until another Burgess be appointed provided he so long live AND
WE APPOINT James Coles Esquire Edward Collis Jonathan
Whiston Thomas Thorneton William Vaughan John Friend Joseph
Hensman and John House to be the Aldermen 179 of the town
AND WE APPOINT Francis Pickmer and Laurence Tomkins to be
the Bailiffs and to continue in office until the feast of Saint
Michael the Archangel or until two others shall be appointed
provided they so long live AND WE WILL that the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses who have been Mayors shall as they have
been accustomed of old time to do elect such Burgesses as may
be necessary to form the Company of Eight and forty who shall
continue for their lives unless amoved AND WE GRANT that the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses who have been Mayors may call
and dissolve the Common Council any statute to the contrary
notwithstanding AND WE WILL that the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses may annually within ten days next after the ist day of
August assemble in the " Guihalda " or some other convenient
place in the town and there according to the statute of the 4th
Henry VII [hereinbefore printed on page 101] elect one Burgess
as Mayor of the town for the ensuing year who before acting shall
take his oath of office before the last Mayor or the Recorder
AND THAT the Mayor Bailiffs and Company of Eight and forty
shall have power in a like manner to elect two out of the eight
and forty as Bailiffs who shall also take their oaths of office
before acting in the same way And in case the Mayor shall die
or from his office be amoved that the Bailiffs the Burgesses who
have been Mayors and the Company of Eight and forty shall
elect another Burgess in his place And that they may in a
similar manner elect Bailiffs in the place of those who shall die
or from their office be amoved And that they may also elect
Burgesses in the place of any of the company who shall die or
be amoved AND WE GRANT that the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses may elect one learned in the laws called the Recorder
1/9 Of these Alderman, Edward Collis was mayor of the town in 1654-5, 1670-1 ;
Jonathan Whishton, or Whiston, in 1657-8, 1674-5 ; Thomas Thorneton, or Thornton,
in 1661-2; William Vaughan in 1663-4; and John Friend, or Frend, in 1665-6,
1669, 1676-7, and 1677-8.
140 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
AND WE APPOINT our councillor Edward Earl of Manchester 18° to
be the Recorder for life and after his decease his successor shall
be elected by the Common Council And that they shall have
authority to elect a Chamberlain and such officers and ministers
as may seem necessary AND WE GRANT that the Mayor and
Recorder the Burgess who was last Mayor and one other Burgess
shall be our Justices of the Peace and perform all things pertain-
ing to that office AND THAT the Mayor Recorder and two other
Burgesses shall be able to hear and determine all things which to
the office of Justice of the Peace belong. AND WE WILL that
our Justices of the Peace for the County of Northampton do
not intromit or meddle in the town or liberties thereof AND WE
CONSTITUTE John Brayfeild Mayor Edward Earl of Manchester
Recorder and others to be our Justices of the Peace and that of
them the Mayor Recorder or Deputy Recorder shall have power
to hear and determine all murders felonies riots oppressions and
other matters AND THAT the Mayor shall be our Escheator AND
WE GRANT that the Mayor and Bailiffs may hold one court of
Record in the Guildhall of actions real or personal on such days
as have been accustomed and render judgments and levy fines
therein and have return of all writs AND THAT the Mayor shall
be Clerk of the Market AND WE GRANT to the Mayor Bailiffs
and Burgesses fines and amerciaments of all Burgesses forfeited
before the Justices of the County of Northampton or elsewhere
AND WE GRANT to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses the goods
and chattels of felons or fugitives for the good of the town where-
fore we command our Treasurer to procure such writs as may be
necessary for levying the same and to pay the same to the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses AND WE GRANT to the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses the hereditaments known as Chamber Lands together
with all wastes purprestures and appurtenances To hold the same
to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses rendering therefore yearly to
us the rents and services which to us and our progenitors have
been rendered AND wishing to provide for the safety of orphans
of the town WE GRANT that the Mayor and his brethren who
have been Mayors shall have the custody of the orphans of any
180 Edward Montagu was born in 1602, and succeeded as second Earl of Man-
Chester in 1642; the same year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and in 1660
Custos Rotulorum for Northamptonshire. He was " a person of great civility and
"very well bred," and "of a debonnair nature." He died in 1671.
LETTERS PATENT, 1663. 141
Burgess of the town And that they shall keep the goods and
chattels of the same in the common treasury of the town in the
same way that is done in the city of London AND as we have
been informed that the Mayor has been used to receive recog-
nizances according to the statute of merchants WE GRANT to
the Mayor the power to receive recognizances according to the
statute of merchants AND WE NOMINATE Henry Lee181 the
Town Clerk to be the clerk to write such recognizances and to
continue in the office of clerk of the town from the present time
to the feast of Saint Michael if he so long live and well demean
himself AND WE GRANT that the Mayor and such Burgesses who
have been Mayors may within ten days after the ist August
annually elect a Town Clerk AND THAI the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses may have seven fairs or marts annually in the town the
first to be on the feast of Saint George the Martyr [April 23rd]
the second on the feast of Saint Hugh the Bishop [November
1 7th] the third on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary [January ist] the fourth on the feast of the An-
nunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary [March 25th] the fifth on
the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary [December
8th] the sixth on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary [August i5th] and the seventh on the Feast of Saint James
the Apostle [December 2yth] each fair to commence on the
day preceding and to be continued on the day following each
feast AND THAT they may hold a market on the Wednesday
Friday and Saturday in every week with tolls and liberties and
a court of Piepowder wituout let or hindrance AND WE GRANT
that the Mayor Bailiffs Burgesses and free men of the town shall
not be impannelled on any juries whatsoever out of the town AND
WE FURTHER GRANT that if any person being a Burgess or free
man shall be elected to any office and refuse to serve the Mayor
and such Burgesses who have been Mayors may impose reasonable
fines and if such person refuse to pay such fines they may commit
131 Henry Lee was appointed Town Clerk in 1662. He was an antiquary, and
wrote a history of the town of Northampton, which is now in the Bodleian Library,
at Oxford ; it is headed " Memorandums of the Antiquities of the Town of North-
" ampton and of severall remarkable things acted in this Kingdom of England
" collected by Henry Lee in the eighty sixth year of his age who served ye
" Corporacon of Northampton in the office of Town - Clerke ffifty and three years
" till August 1715:"
142 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
him to prison whether residing in the town or not and also
distrain his goods AND FURTHER that no merchant pedlar or
chapman shall sell goods within the town except in times of fairs
and marts unless he be a Burgess AND WE GRANT to the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses license to acquire lands or hereditaments
not exceeding the yearly value of fifty pounds AND THAT all
letters patent charters and ordinances of our dearest progenitors
to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses shall be ratified and con-
firmed to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses for ever They
rendering yearly the rents and services which have been heretofore
rendered AND THAT all liberties and privileges formerly enjoyed
by the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses shall be restored although
they may not have used the same AND WE ORDAIN that the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses Recorder and other officers of the
town nominated by these or other letters patent shall take the
oaths of obedience or of supremacy before such persons as shall
be ordained by law for that purpose WITHOUT express mention &c
IN TESTIMONY whereof &c WITNESS myself at Westminster the
3rd day of August
By the same King
These letters patent are not with the muniments of the borough.
The preceding abridgement has been made from the copy now in
the Public Record Office, where it is referred to as : —
Rot : Pat : i$to Car. II. p. ig. n. j.
of 35$ tfyw&e n.
2oTH SEPTEMBER, 1683.
TN 1683 the corporation of Northampton desired to have a new
charter; and on the i8th July of that year the assembly voted
an address to the King under the common seal, and at the same
time it was ordered that the charter be surrendered to Sir Roger
Norwich, Baronet, to be delivered to the King and that the
common seal be attached to the surrender.
The new grant was accordingly obtained, and at the next
Assembly held on the 25th September of the same year, it was
ordered that money be raised either on mortgage, or by sale of
the town lands to pay for the new charter.
Bridges, 183 writing at the end of the seventeenth century, states
that in consequence of the surrender of the last charter of the
1 5th Charles II. not having been enrolled, these letters patent
were, in the opinion of Sir Edw. Northey, the Attorney-General,
void. And so the corporation continued to act under the
pevious grant of I5th Charles II., until the last letters patent
were received in 1796.
These letters patent, are here only very shortly abstracted,
as they are of great length and very similar to those of i6th
James I., of which a full epitome is printed before on page 125.
This document commences in the usual way.
Abbreviated Translation.
CHARLES THE SECOND by the grace of God of England
Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c
To ALL to whom these presents shall come Greeting WHEREAS
182 Bridges' Northamptonshire, vol. I, p. 433.
144 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
these letters patent are granted by us upon a petition of the
Corporation dated the 25th July 1683 Now WE WILL that the
limits of the town shall be the same as those mentioned in the
grant of the i6th James I AND WE WILL and grant that the
town shall be corporate THAT the Corporation shall be com-
petent in law to have a common seal THAT the Mayor Bailiffs and
Forty-eight Burgesses shall form the Common Council THAT the
Mayor and Aldermen shall have power to make laws statutes
and ordinances for the good government of the town and that
they shall have power to inforce the same by fines and punish-
ments* WE APPOINT Thomas Atterbury183 as Mayor of the
town And we appoint William Else Jonathan Whiston John
Willoughby John Bradfeild John Friend John Howes Richard Rands
Richard White and Robert White to be the Aldermen of the
town And we appoint John Warnes William Pettit Frances
Ratdmyt Richard Harris Henry Lee Thomes Serjeant John Clif-
ford Robert Addis Raphdeleur Coldwell Richard Ebraff James
Green Robert Ives senior Henry Flexney Charles Lyon Nicholas
Knyt Samuel Short Robert Styles John Peake Richard Bucking-
ham Richard Ward and Samuel Clifford as Bailiffs of the town
AND WE appoint Thomas Shadwick John Warner Nathaniel
Andrews Henry Watts Nathaniel Potter Robert Coles John Pigeon
senior Thomas Brafeild John Farr John Twinden John Dunckley
John Pigeon junior Thomas Harrison Bartholomew Parr Robert
Sanders Thomas Clarridge Hatton Atkins Edward Hellier William
Weecles Samuel Martin John Rands Richard Pigeon William Burt
Henry Osmond John Lane John King John Bayly Richard Harris
Richard Holled Thomas Lacep Henry Cooper Edward Frind John
Fokser Thomas Bates John Dilley Francis Batten Thomas Scrivener
Fraur Booth William Cooke Charles Cook to be the Company of
Forty AND WE direct that the Mayor Bailiffs and the Burgesses
who have been Mayors or Bailiffs or the majority of them shall
have power to elect the Mayor annually between the ist of
August and the 26th September in the Guildhall or other con-
venient place in the town AND THAT in case the Mayor shall die
or be amoved from his office his successor shall be elected by the
Bailiffs and the Burgesses who have been Mayors or Bailiffs and
the Company of Forty or the majority of them AND WE direct
* Second skin.
33 Thomas Atterbury, or Atterburg, was mayor of the town in 1682-3.
LETTERS PATENT, 1683. 145
that the Mayor shall take his oath of office before the last Mayor
and the Recorder of the town AND THAT in case the Bailiffs
die or be amoved from their office their successors shall be
elected by the Mayor Bailiffs the Burgesses who have been
Mayors or Bailiffs and the Company of Forty AND WE will that
the town have a discreet and learned man as Recorder AND WE
appoint Henry Earl of Peterborough 184 as Recorder of the town
for life And after his decease his successor shall be elected by
the Common Council of the town AND WE* also will that the
town have one Seneschal AND WE appoint Henry Harris one of
the Bailiffs as Seneschal to remain in that office so long as he
well demean himself AND WE direct that the Seneschal shall
take the oath of office before the Mayor or Recorder and any of
the Aldermen Bailiffs or Burgesses who choose to be present
AND WE will that his successor shall be elected by the Common
Council AND WE appoint Henry Lee185 as Common Clerk who
shall take his oath of office in the same manner as the Seneschal
and his successor shall be elected by the Common Council AND
WE will that the Common Council shall have power to nominate
such Chamberlains Officers and Ministers for the good government
of the town as they may think fit AND WE will that the Mayor
Recorder and Deputy Recorder or any one of them and their
successors shall be our Justices of the Peace within the liberties
of the town to execute all that pertains to that office AND WE
direct that the Justices of the Peace for the County of North-
ampton shall in no way intromit or interfere AND WE will that
the Mayor shall be the Escheator of the town AND THAT a
Court of Record shall be held in the Guildhall before the Mayor
Recorder Deputy Recorder and the two Bailiffs AND THAT the
* Third skin.
184 Henry Maundaunt was born in 1621, and succeeded as second Earl of
Peterborough in 1644. He was possessed of Drayton, in this county, and was
keeper of the King's game in that manor. On the 5th July, 1673, the Earl was
appointed Lord Lieutenant for the western division of this county, and was Lord
Lieutenant for the whole county from the 2Oth February, 1678, to the 23rd
December, 1688. He was appointed Recorder of Northampton on the 2Oth July,
1682, of Higham Ferrers in 1683, and of Brackley on the 8th September, 1688.
His motto was : Lucent tuam da nobis. Earl Maudaunt married Penelope, daughter
of the Earl of Thomond, by whom he had two daughters. He died on the iQth
June, 1697.
185 For note as to Henry Lee see page 141.
L
146 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Corporation shall have return of all writs summonses of the Ex-
chequer and other processes AND THAT the Mayor shall be Clerk
of the Market AND WE* further grant to the Corporation all
fines amerciaments or redemptions of Burgesses whether resident
or not resident in the town made or forfeited before our Justices
of Oyer and Terminer of Assizes of Gaol Delivery or of the
Peace or before the Clerk of the Market the Justices in Eyre
or the Commissioners of " Les Sewers " in the County of North-
ampton or before the Mayor Recorder and two Burgesses Justices
of the Peace or the Clerk of the Market in the town or the
Seneschal and Marshal the Escheator in the town or county of
Northampton or before any other Justices Commissioners of us
in the county of Northampton And also the goods and chattels
of felons and all forfeited recognizances And with power to sue
in our name for issues fines amerciaments and recognizances
forfeited Mandamus to the Lord Treasurer and officers of the
Exchequer after the recovery and levying of the fines to deliver
them out of the Exchequer to the Mayor And we confirm the
Chamberlains' orphans court AND WE appoint that the Mayor
and Aldermen shall have custody of orphans and that their goods
and chattels shall be kept in the common treasury AND WE
appoint the Mayor to take statutes merchant and recognizances
AND WE appoint Henry Lee the Town Clerk to be the Clerk
of the Statutes AND WE grantf seven fairs yearly on the same
days as mentioned in the charter of i6th James I. AND WE
also grant a market to be held on the first Thursday in every
calendar month for the sale and purchase of cattle except horses
mares and colts AND a market every Wednesday Friday and
Saturday throughout the year with the right of levying tolls and
with a Court of Pie-powder and free customs AND THAT all
Burgesses shall be exempt from serving on juries out of the
town AND with power to elect any freeman though not
resident in the town to any office within the town AND THAT
any one refusing to accept any office to which he has been
elected shall be fined and in default of payment committed to
prison and detained until the fine shall be paid AND WE grant
that none but Burgesses and freemen shall exercise any trade
* Fourth skin,
f Fifth skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1683. 147
art mystery or calling or keep any shop or stall or sell wares
or merchandize or use any art or calling in the town AND THAT
no pedlers or " petty chapmen " shall sell any cloth (except
" Huswifes cloth ") or any merchandize (except victuals) by retail
except in time of fairs AND THAT the Corporation shall have
license in mortmain to purchase to the value of £50 yearly
AND WE hereby confirm all ancient liberties lands manors tene-
ments free fishing and other privileges AND THAT* the Recorder
shall have power to appoint a deputy to act during his pleasure
AND WE further will that the Mayor Aldermen Bailiffs Burgesses
Recorder Deputy Recorder Seneschal Common Clerk and all
other officers and ministers of the town shall take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy AND WE further reserve power to
amove the Mayor Aldermen Recorder or other officer of the
town or any of them by letters under our Signet IN TESTIMONY
whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent
WITNESS myself at Westminster the 2oth day of September in
the 35th year of our reign
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on six skins of parchment, 3 if
inches wide and 25 inches deep. The first of these is adorned
with a portrait of the King, a shield bearing the royal arms
(Stewart), and other crowned shields, bearing singly England,
France, Scotland (without tressure), Ireland, and the double rose
badge of England. The other skins are ornamented in a similar
manner. All these designs are printed from copper plates.
Two small fragments of the great seal in green wax remain
attached to the red and white cord.
On the back is only : —
"24"
There is also a copy of these letters patent in the Public
Record Office, where they are referred to as : —
Rot: Pat: 35 Car. II., p. 3. n. 2.
* Sixth skin.
L 2
of 10* @nnc+
IOTH JULY, 1702.
/~PHESE letters patent, which are of the nature of an inspeximus
7 charter, simply inspect and confirm the letters patent of the
I5th Charles II., without granting any fresh privileges.
Translation.
ANNE by the grace of God of England Scotland France and
Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith &c. To ALL to whom
these our present letters shall come Greeting WE HAVE IN-
SPECTED the inrolment of certain letters patent of confirmation
bearing date the third day of August in the fifteenth year of the
reign of Charles the Second made and granted to the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of Northampton as appears
of record by our Chancellor of the Exchequer in these words
The King to all [and so forth, repeating the whole of the letters
patent of I5th Charles II., 3rd August, 1663, printed before at page
137.] Now WE the inrolments aforesaid at the request of the
said Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town of Northampton
aforesaid include and exemplify by these presents IN TESTIMONY
whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent
WITNESS myself at Westminster the loth day of July in the first
year of our reign
Trevor Trymes
Examined by us ( Will Roges
and
Jno Roges
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in Latin on six skins of parchment, 34
inches wide and 32 inches deep.
LETTERS PATENT, 1702. 149
Each skin is ornamented with designs printed from copper
plates. On the first is a portrait of Queen Anne ; a shield
bearing the royal arms of England (as used by the Stuarts) ; and
other shields bearing singly England, France, Scotland, and
Ireland, surmounted by crowns ; and a shield bearing a crowned
thistle as the badge of Scotland ; the whole interwoven with
floriated patterns. The other five skins are adorned in a
similar manner. Two Inland Revenue stamps, of five shillings
each, are impressed on every skin.
The whole of the great seal of England, as used by King
William III., after the death of Queen Mary, in yellow wax,
attached to white and red platted cord, and placed in a circular
tin box, is still extant, and is in fair preservation.
On the back is written : —
"25"
" An Exemplefycacon att the Requeft
" of the Mayor Bayliffs and Burgeffes
"of the Towne of Northton."
<£;cempfiftcafton of a Jfu
i2TH FEBRUARY, 1744.
document is a record of a judgement of the Court of
King's Bench at Westminster, with respect to certain
market rights of the town.
Abbreviated Transcript.
GEORGE THE SECOND BY THE GRACE OF GOD of Great
Britain ffrance and Ireland King Defender of the ffaith &c. To
all to whom these presents shall come GREETING We have
inspected a certain Record had before us in these words PLEAS
before our Lord the King at Westmifter of the Term of the Holy
Trinity in the I7th and i8th George the Second 1744 Roll 1002
Northamptonshire to wit The Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of
Northampton by their attorney against Thomas Ward the younger
150 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
by his attorney Be it remembered that on Friday next after the
morrow of the Holy Trinity in the same Term The Mayor Bailiffs
and Burgesses brought a Bill against the said Thomas Ward then
in the custody of the Marshal of the Marshalsea for that he on the
5th day of May 1743 had entered the close of the Mayor Bailiffs
and Burgesses called the Butcher's Row within the parish of All
Saints in the town of Northampton and erected a stall in the same
close and permitted the same to remain there for ten days to
the great damage of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses amounting
as they say to the sum of £20 Whereupon the said Thomas
Ward pleads not guilty And as to the space of twenty hours
part of the said space of ten days the said Thomas Ward says
that the said close called Butcher's Row formed part of the Mar-
ket Hill where a public Market had been held on the Saturday
in every week for the sale of raw flesh and other merchandise
And that there had been an ancient custom whereby every
butcher being a burgess or freeman had been accustomed to
erect and use stalls in the said close on every market day freely
And the said Thomas Ward says he is a burgess freeman and
butcher of the town Therefore he had on the said 5th day of
May that being a Saturday and market day entered the said
close and erected a stall there for the space of twenty hours
for the sale of meat The issue was tried before Sir Lawrence
Carter Knight and Edward Denison Esquire at the Assizes held
in and for the County of Northampton on the third day of July 1743
when the Jury John Packhurst Esquire Samuel Harding Esquire
John Blencowe Esquire John Orme Esquire Edward Maunsell
Esquire John Tryon Esquire Charles Bletsoe Esquire William
Ash Esquire Samuel Goodman Gentleman Thomas Banks Gentle-
man Richard Marryott Gentleman and William Foster Gentleman
found that the said Thomas Ward was guilty of trespass and
assessed damages to the amount of one shilling and costs to the
amount of £2. 135. 4d. due to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
The parties not being satisfied the cause was removed to
Westminster where after several adjournments it was held by the
Court that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses were not barred
from their action and so they were held to be entitled to recover
the several sums of one shilling for damages £2. 135. 4d. for
costs and £122. 53. 8d. for further costs amounting altogether to
£125.
EXEMPLIFICATION OF A JUDGEMENT, 1744. 151
This document is written in English on four skins of parch-
ment, 36 inches wide and 32 inches deep. On the first skin is
a portrait of the King, the royal arms, &c., and the other skins
are also ornamented with designs printed from copper plates.
Each skin bears an Inland Revenue stamp of the value of los.
Fragments of the seal of the Court of King's Bench in a
tin box are attached.
It is indorsed : —
" The Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses
"of the Corporation of Northampton
" agst
''Thomas Ward."
"27"
of 3<H# (Bfeowje
2ND APRIL, 1796.
TN 1795 the letters patent of the ist Queen Anne were sur-
rendered to the King. Mr. Thomas Hall being mayor
and Messrs. George Osborn and Samuel Holt bailiffs at the time.
In May, the same year, the mayor and corporation drew up
a petition to the King, praying him to regrant to the burgesses
all their ancient grants and privileges. But they did not think
it necessary to convene a general meeting of the town for this
purpose. Mr. Martin Lucas, however, thought otherwise, opposed
the petition, and called a general meeting in the County Hall,
which caused great confusion.
Committees were formed, a counter petition praying the King
not to grant the new charter without the knowledge of the
petitioners, was signed by about 500 persons, and presented by
the Honble. Edward Bouverie.
The draft of the proposed new grant was accordingly sent to
the town committee for their approval ; and in November these
gentlemen came to the following resolution : —
152 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
"That this committee do now decline all further opposition to the
" new charter ; as, having been defeated in their main pursuit of
" obtaining a participation in the construction of it, they have
"no hopes of succeeding better by combating particular clauses
" though there might be some which to them may appear ob-
jectionable."
In the meantime the court of aldermen resolved to nominate
eight persons to fill up the vacancies in the forty eight ; and
"to be inserted in the new charter now soliciting"; and it was
added that all officers should continue in their respective offices.
The new letters patent were accordingly prepared, and early
in the year 1796, Mr. Hall, accompanied by Mr. John Markham,
went to London, and on the 6th April they returned with the
new grant.
On the arrival of the carriage with the Mayor, Lord Compton,
the Honble. Spencer Percival, Mr. Markham, and the precious
document, the horses were taken out, and the carriage drawn
through the principal streets.
At the Guildhall the mayor addressed the burgesses in these
words : —
" Gentlemen, — It is with infinite satisfaction I have the honour
" to lay before you your charter of incorporation, whereby his
" Majesty has been pleased to confirm your ancient rights and
" privileges. The feeble opposition made against your obtaining
" this royal grant, I doubt not, has satisfied every candid mind
" it originated in error, and without foundation. You requested
" only your rights to be established on a solid and permanent
" basis, and I am confident I speak the language of you all when
" I say, the powers now vested in you and myself as a body,
" will never be exercised but for the true and best interests of
"the town in general."
After this address, the mayor and the corporation, with Lord
Compton, Mr. Perceval, and the principal inhabitants dined to-
gether at the Peacock Hotel.
The cost of obtaining this new grant was enormous, and we
find that during the years 1795-6 the corporation borrowed £1600
of various persons towards these expenses. The mayor's accounts
for these years show the following disbursements that come under
that head:—
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 153
£. s. d.
12 Nov.
Mr. Jeyes, Town Clerk, on account of the
Charter ...
40 o o
8 Jan.
Mr. Jeyes, on further account of the Charter...
40 o o
16 Mar.
Mr. Jeyes, on further account of the Charter...
100 0 0
At the Council Office, ditto
60 5 6
Patent Office, ditto
160 17 o
Secretary of State's Office, ditto
343 17 6
Signet Office, ditto
390 13 7
Privy Seal Office, ditto
392 13 6
Lord Chancellor's Office, ditto
255 3 8
My own and Mr. Markham's Expenses to
London for the Charter ...
22 3 0
2 Sept.
Mr. Jeyes, on further account of the Charter ...
2OO O O
Printing a Bill ditto
14 19 2
The
rejoicings over the new charter were also various and
costly, as appears from the following particulars from
the same
accounts
:—
£. s. d.
6 April
Mr. Francis Osborn, Expenses of the night
the Charter arrived
53 4 ii
Mr. George Osborn for Ribbons upon the
arrival of the Charter
3 J3 Io
For Beer ditto
12 7 8
Mr. Francis Osborn, Expenses of Ladys As-
sembly ...
18 18 6
Musick at Ditto
i 16 o
Mr. Dilkin for a Transparency
20 5 o
Mr. Bemington for Lighting it
40 o o
Expenses of the Constables for attending
I 2 6
Mr. Samul Holt, for Scaffolding for the Trans-
parency ...
6 3 8
16 May
Mr. Richard Mills, for a Dinner
53 9 o
Boyes, for Oranges and Lemons
i 15 o
John Wickens, for Nuts and Oranges
o 13 o
George Osborn, for Sugar ...
i 5 4
Mr. James Miller, for Candles
i o 6
Mr. M. Francis, for Biskets
060
Sergeants' Expenses at their Dinners
o 15 o
Two Cork Screws ...
020
154 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The assembly in 1796, voted a hundred guineas to Mr. Spencer
Perceval, deputy recorder, for his trouble and pains in connection
with the new charter, together with five guineas to his clerk.
Fifty guineas were voted, for a like cause, to Mr. John Markham.
It was also ordered on July 4th of that year, " that the
Expenses of the Treat at the Peacock Inn on the Evening the
Charter arrived here and was received by the Corporation as also
the Mayor's Feast, the Ball given to the Ladys and Gentlemen,
and the Expenses of the Transparency be paid by Mr. Mayor and
charged to the credit of his account in the Corporation."
These letters patent being the last ever granted to the borough
of Northampton, are here printed in full from the original. The
side notes are not in the original, but are here printed for con-
venience of reference.
of 36^ <&orge
2ND APRIL, 1796.
/^EORGE THE THIRD BY THE GRACE OF GOD of
Great Britain ffrance and Ireland King defender of the
faith and so forth To ALL TO WHOM these our Present Letters
Preamble. shall come Greeting WHEREAS the Town of Northampton
in our County of Northampton is a Town very ancient and
populous and from ancient times hath been a Town incorporated
and the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town aforesaid
and the Inhabitants of the same and their Predecefsors have had
and held divers Liberties franchises Privileges and Immunities
from the Donations and Conceisions of divers our Progenitors
and Ancestors late Kings and Queens of England AND WHEREAS
it has been humbly besought of us that wee would vouchsafe to
ratify approve and confirm all and singular the aforesaid Grants
Charters and Letters Patent of all or any our Progenitors and
Ancestors to the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their
Predecefsors by any Name or Names of Incorporation made and
granted and whether such Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses are now
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 155
a Corporation or not with Addition Augmentation Alteration and
Explanation of such Liberties Grants Privileges Immunities and
franchises according as to us should seem expedient for the public
Good and Common Utility of the same Town KNOW YE that
wee most earnestly desiring the Benefit Advantage Prosperity
Augmentation and Amendment of the Town aforesaid and also
the good State and Government of the same and being willing
that from henceforth for ever one certain and undoubted Manner
and form may be continually had in the same Town and Place
aforesaid for the keeping of Peace and the good Rule and
Government of the People there and that our Peace and other
Acts of Justice there may be without further delay observed of
our special Grace and our certain Knowledge and mere motion
HAVE willed ordained appointed granted ratified confirmed and
declared and by these Presents for ourselves our Heirs and
Successors DO will ordain appoint grant ratify confirm and
declare that the aforesaid Town of Northampton and the
Circuit Precincts Limits Bounds Compass Liberties ffranchises of0"hedTown
and Jurisdictions of the same henceforth for ever do extend
stretch forth and reach and may and can be able and of force
to extend stretch forth and spread themselves in and by such
the same and the like Compass Bounds and Limits as heretofore
they have been accustomed and ought to extend and reach WE incorporation
have also willed ordained appointed granted ratified confirmed and the Mayor
declared and by these Presents of our special Grace and of our Burgesses.
certain Knowledge and mere motion for ourselves our Heirs
and Successors DO will ordain appoint grant ratify confirm and
declare that the said Town of Northampton henceforth be and
shall be a ffree Town of itself and that the Burgesses of the said
Town and their Successors from henceforth and for ever be
and shall be by force of these Presents one Body Corporate
and Politic in Deed ffact and Name by the Name of the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Northampton and them
by the Name of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town
of Northampton into one Body Corporate and Politic in Deed
ffact and Name really and to the full for us our Heirs and
Succefsors we do erect make ordain and constitute confirm and
declare by these Presents and that by the same Name they may
have a perpetual Succession and that they by the Name of the capacity to
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town of Northampton be
156 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and shall be always in times to come Persons able and in Law
capable to have purchase receive and possess Lands Tenements
Liberties Privileges Jurisdictions franchises and Hereditaments
of what kind nature or species soever they shall be to them and
their Successors in ffee for ever and also Goods and Chattels
and other things whatsoever of what kind nature or species
soever they shall be AND ALSO to Give Grant Demise and Assign
Lands Tenements and Hereditaments Goods and Chattels and to
do and execute all and singular other Deeds and Things by the
May sue and name aforesaid AND THAT by the same Name of the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Northampton they may be
empowered and enabled to plead and be impleaded to answer
and be answered to defend and be defended in whatsoever Courts
Pleadings and Places and before whatsoever our Judges and
Justices and other persons and Officers of us, and our Heirs
and Succefsors in all Suits Plaints Pleas Causes Matters and
Demands whatsoever of what Kind Nature or Species soever
they be in the same manner and form as others our liege
People of this our Kingdom of England being Persons able and
in Law capable can and may plead and be impleaded answer
and be answered defend and be defended and to have purchase
Common Seal receive possefs give grant and demise AND THAT the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and
their Succefsors shall and may have for ever a Common Seal
which shall serve for the doing of their and their Successors
Matters Business and Affairs whatsoever and that it shall and
may be lawful for the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and
their Succefsors from time to time at their Pleasure to break
such Seal and change or make a new One according as to them
The Mayor. shall seem requisite and fit AND further wee will and by
these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors do Grant and
ordain appoint ratify confirm and declare that from henceforth
for ever there be and shall be within the Town aforesaid one of
the most honest and discreet Burgefses of the Town aforesaid in
form hereinafter in these Presents mentioned to be nominated
and chosen who shall be and shall be called the Mayor of the
Bailiffs. Town aforesaid AND *THAT likewise there be and shall be
within the same Town two of the most honest and discreet
*Second skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 157
Burgefses of the Town aforesaid in Form beneath in these
Presents mentioned to be chosen who shall be and shall be
called the Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid AND ALSO THAT 48 Bursesses-
henceforth there be and shall be within the Town aforesaid
from time to time forty and eight honest and discreet Men
dwelling and abiding within the same Town and which never
have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town who shall be
called the Company of Eight and forty. AND WEE will and by gjjj1™.^ be
these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors do grant that ^is^ng to the
the Mayor and two Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid for the
time being and such other Burgesses of the same Town who
heretofore have been in Law or in ffact Mayors or Bailiffs of
the same Town and have exercised such Offices respectively
during so long time as they were respectively elected thereunto
whether duly elected thereunto or not and also such other
Burgesses of the same Town as hereafter from time to time
shall have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town together
with the aforesaid forty eight Burgesses called the Company of
Eight and Forty shall be and shall be called the Common Council
of the Town aforesaid and shall be from time to time assistant
and aiding to the Mayor of the said Town for the time being
in all causes and matters touching and concerning the Town
aforesaid AND FURTHER WEE will and by these Presents for Power to
us our Heirs and Successors do grant ratify confirm and
declare that the Mayor and Bailiffs of the aforesaid Town of
Northampton and their Successors and such Burgesses of the
same Town which heretofore have been or have exercised the
Offices of Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town in manner
aforesaid or hereafter from time to time shall have been
Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town together with the aforesaid
other Burgesses called the Company of Eight and forty and
their Successors for the time being or the major part of the
same of which major part wee will the Mayor of the Town
aforesaid for the time being and three other Burgesses of the
same Town which heretofore have been or have exercised the
Office of Mayors of the same Town in Manner aforesaid or
hereafter shall have been Mayors of the same Town commonly
called Aldermen of the same Town shall be four have and shall
have full Power and Authority to constitute ordain and make from
time to time such reasonable Laws Statutes and Ordinances
158 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
which to them according to their sound Discretion shall seem to
be good wholesome profitable honest and necessary for the good
Rule and Government of the Burgefses and other Inhabitants of
the Town aforesaid for the time being and for a Declaration
in what manner and order the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses and Inhabitants of the Town aforesaid for the time
being shall demean and use themselves in their Offices within
the Town aforesaid and the Limits of the same for the further
good and public Service Government and Bettering of the Town
aforesaid and victualling of the same and for levying of Moneys
to and for the necessary Uses of the same Town and also for
the better Preservation guiding disposing letting and setting of
Lands Tenements Possessions Rents Revenues and Hereditaments
to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the aforesaid Town of
Northampton and their Succefsors heretofore given granted
aisigned or confirmed or hereafter to be given granted afsigned
or confirmed or as they or their Predecessors by whatsoever
Name or Names or by whatsoever Title of Incorporation known
or incorporated or whether they were incorporated or not
have held and enjoyed and for Accounts Matters and other
Causes whatsoever touching or any ways concerning the Town
aforesaid or the State Right and Interest of the same Town yet
so as such Laws Statutes and Ordinances be not repugnant
or contrary to the Laws Statutes Customs or Rights of our
First Mayor. Kingdom of England AND for the better Execution of our
Grants in this Behalf we have assigned constituted appointed
nominated and made and by these Presents do for us our Heirs
and Successors assign constitute nominate appoint and make our
beloved Thomas Hall now Mayor or exercising the Office of
Mayor of the Town aforesaid to be the first and new Mayor of
the same Town willing that the same Thomas Hall shall be and
continue in the Office of Mayor of the said Town from the
making of these Presents until the Day of the ffeast of St.
Michael the Archangel next to come and from the same until
another Burgess of the aforesaid Town shall be preferred and
sworn to that Office according to the Ordinance and Con-
stitutions hereunder in these Presents expressed and declared
if the said Thomas Hall 18« shall so long live AND FURTHER
186 Thomas Hall was Mayor of the Town in 1789-90, 1794-5, 1795-6, and again
in 1808-9.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 159
WE have nominated afsigned appointed and confirmed and by
these presents do for us our Heirs and Succefsors nominate
afsign appoint and confirm our beloved Thomas Breton William
Gibson William King John Newcome Robert Trasler William
Tompson Clark Hillyard William Marshall James Sutton Richard
Mills Samuel Treslove Hill Gudgeon Richard Meacock James
Miller William ffrancis and Jeremiah Briggs now called Aldermen
of the said Town to be Aldermen of the Town aforesaid for and
during their respective natural Lives unless in the mean Time for
some just and reasonable Cause they or any of them be in due
Manner removed from their Office and Offices Moreover we First two
have assigned nominated constituted and made and confirmed and
by these Presents do for us our Heirs and Succefsors assign
nominate constitute make and confirm our beloved George Osborn
and Samuel Holt now Bailiffs or exercising the Office of Bailiffs
of the Town aforesaid to be the first and new Bailiffs of the
Town aforesaid to be continued in Office until the aforesaid
ffeast Day of St. Michael the Archangel next coming and from
the same ffeast until two other Burgefses of the Town aforesaid
shall be preferred and sworn to the Office* of Bailiffs of the
same Town according to the Orders and Constitutions in these
Presents expressed and declared if the same George Osborn and
Samuel Holt shall so long live AND further we have nominated Bailiffs,
afsigned and confirmed and by these Presents do for us our Heirs
and Successors nominate assign and confirm our beloved William
Pain Martin Lucas Henry Duke Edward Cox Charles Smith
John Hollis Thomas Dickinson Thomas Scriven James Brown
ffrancis Hayes Thomas Smith John Segary Joseph Edge Thomas
Hodgkinson John Matthews Hopkins John Chambers William
Ager Benjamin Goodman James Cliff Edward Wood John Harris
Timothy Chapman and ffrancis Shaw who have heretofore been
Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid or have exercised the Office of
Bailiff of the Town aforesaid to exercise the Duties and have
the Privileges by these Presents conferred upon such Burgesses
as have been Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid for and during their
respective natural Lives unless in the mean Time for some just
and reasonable Cause they or any of they be in due Manner
removed from their Office or Offices AND further wee have Burgesses.
* Third skin
160 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
nominated assigned and confirmed and by these Presents do for
us our Heirs and Successors nominate assign and confirm our
beloved William ffox John George Hugh Sharp James Linnell
Richard Alliston Joshua Stevenson John Gibson Aaron Thompson
Whitmill Paine William Tarry James Boon Robert Roddis
ffrancis Osborn William Birdsall Arthur Brownsgrave James
Jones John Bull Collins Robert Trasler the Younger William
Pain the Younger John ffox William Dunkley John Scofield
George ffish William Sutton John Harris Thomas Westley
William Odell John Hall Thomas Taylor Thomas Catterns
Thomas Hillyard Barnard Levi Samuel Brown Joseph Cross
John Johnson John Wright Thomas Armfield Richard Scriven
John Barrett William Marshall the Younger William Balaam
Charles Balaam John Dunkley Joseph Ekins Lewis Charles
ffreeman James Dunkley William Trasler and Thomas Treslove
to be the new and present Burgesses called the Company of
Eight and forty of the same Town for and during their respective
natural Lives unless in the mean Time for some just or reasonable
Cause they or any of them be in due Manner removed from their
Election of Office or Offices AND further we will and by these Presents
48 in case of
death. for us our Heirs and Successors do grant unto the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Northampton
aforesaid and their Succelsors that the Mayor of the Town
aforesaid for the Time being and such Burgesses of the same
Town who have been heretofore Mayors or have heretofore
exercised the office of Mayors of the Town aforesaid in Manner
aforesaid or who hereafter shall have been Mayors of the same
Town shall from Time to Time according to the ancient Customs
of the same Town used as often as there shall be Occasion
assign nominate and elect constitute and make so many and such
Burgesses as to them shall seem necessary and convenient to be
the forty eight Burgesses called the Company of Eight and forty
of the same Town in the Room or Stead of those who may die
or may be removed from their Office or Offices in order to
complete and keep up the Number of forty eight Burgesses of
the same Town which said forty eight Burgesses so assigned
nominated elected constituted and made shall be and shall be
called the Company of Eight and forty of the same Town during
their natural Lives unless in the mean Time for some reasonable
Cause according to the ancient Usage of the Corporation they
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. l6l
or any of them shall be removed from that Office or Place a
Corporal Oath to execute the Office in all Things touching the
same being: first taken AND we further will and bv these Removal of
fe . J Members.
Presents for us our Heirs and Successors do grant to the
aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town aforesaid
and their Succefsors that the Mayor of the Town aforesaid for
the Time being and such Burgefses of the same Town who have
been heretofore Mayors or have heretofore exercised the Office of
Mayor of the said Town as aforesaid or hereafter from time to
time shall have been Mayors of the same Town or the major
Part of the same from time to time may have and shall have
Authority and Power for any reasonable Cause or Causes to
displace and remove from their Office or Place of Common
Council any of the said forty eight Burgesses called the
Company of Eight and forty and also such Burgesses of the
same Town who heretofore have been Mayors or Bailiffs of
the said Town or have exercised the Office of Mayor or Bailiffs
of the same Town in Manner aforesaid or who hereafter shall
have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town and thereby or
by virtue of these presents Members of the Common Council
aforesaid any use prescription or custom to the contrary
thereof in anywise notwithstanding And further wee will and Election of
by these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors Do Grant to
the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid
and their Successors that the Mayor and Bailiffs of the Town
aforesaid for the time being and such Burgesses of the same
Town who heretofore have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the
same Town or have exercised the Office of Mayor or Bailiff
of the said Town in Manner aforesaid or who hereafter from
time to time shall have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the
same town together with the aforesaid fforty eight Burgesses
called the Company of Eight and forty and their Successors from
time to time 'for ever hereafter may have, and shall have Power
and Authority yearly within ten Days next following the first day
of August in every Year to assemble themselves or the major
part of them in the Guildhall of the Town aforesaid or in other
convenient Place within the Town aforesaid according to their
Discretion to be limited and afsigned and there to Continue until
they or the major part of them then and there assembled shall '
have elected and nominated One of the Burgesses of the Town
M
162 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
aforesaid to be Mayor for the Year who shall be Mayor of the
Town aforesaid for one whole Year from Michaelmas THEN* next
Mayor's Oath, following AND that after he shall be so nominated and elected as
aforesaid before he be admitted to execute that Office he shall
take a Corporal Oath upon the Holy Gospel of God Yearly in the
Solemnity of the said ffeast of St. Michael the Archangel before
the last Mayor his Predecessor or the Recorder or the Deputy
Recorder of the town aforesaid which for the time being shall
be according to the ancient Custom of the same Town to execute
that Office rightfully well and faithfully in all things touching
the same and that after such Oath so taken he may take upon
him ought and is empowered to execute the Office of Mayor of
the Town aforesaid until the Day of the ffeast of Saint Michael
the Archangel then next following and so long after until another
of the aforesaid Burgesses of the Town aforesaid shall be in
like due Manner and Form elected preferred and sworn for the
Election of Mayor of the Town aforesaid AND moreover wee will and by
these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors do Grant to the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and their
Successors That the Mayor and Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid
'for the time being and such Burgesses of the same Town who
heretofore have been or have exercised the Office of Mayors or
Bailiffs of the same Town in manner aforesaid or hereafter shall
have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town for the time
being and the aforesaid forty and eight Burgesses called the
Company of Eight and forty and their Successors from time to
time and at all times hereafter may have and shall have Power
and Authority yearly within ten Days next after the aforesaid
first day of August in every Year to assemble themselves or
the major Part of them in the Guildhall of the town aforesaid
or in any other convenient place within the Town aforesaid at
their Discretion to be limited and assigned and there to contine
until they so as aforesaid assembled shall have nominated and
elected two of the aforesaid forty eight Burgesses commonly
called the Company of Eight and forty of the town aforesaid
to be Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid for the Year following in
form aforesaid to be elected and nominated and that they be
there empowered to elect and nominate two of the aforesaid
Fourth skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 163
Forty eight Burgesses called the Company of Eight and forty
who from thenceforth shall be Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid for
one whole Year next following the ffeast of Saint Michael the
Archangel then next Ensuing And that they after they shall be Bailiff's Oath.
so as aforesaid elected and nominated for Bailiffs of the Town
aforesaid before they be admitted to execute that Office shall
yearly in the Solemnity of the said ffeast of Saint Michael the
Archangel take their Corporal Oaths upon the Holy Gospel of God
before the Mayor of the Town aforesaid for the time being or
the Recorder or Deputy Recorder of the Town aforesaid for
the time being according to the ancient Custom of the same
Town rightly truly and faithfully to execute that Office in all
things touching the same and that after such Oaths so taken
they may take upon them and are fully empowered to execute
the Office of Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid until the ffeast of
Saint Michael the Archangel then next following and so long
after until two other of the aforesaid forty eight Burgesses
called the Company of Eight and forty shall in due manner and
Form be elected preferred and sworn for Bailiffs of the Town
aforesaid AND FURTHER we will and by these Presents for us Election of
. - Mayor in Case
our Heirs and Successors do grant to the atoresaid Mayor of Death.
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and their Successors
that if it shall happen the Mayor of the Town aforesaid at any
Time hereafter within one Year after he shall be preferred and
sworn to the Office of Mayor of the Town aforesaid in Manner
as aforesaid shall die or be removed from his Office that then
and so often it shall be lawful for the Bailiffs of the Town
aforesaid and such Burgesses of the same Town which heretofore
have been in Manner aforesaid Mayors or Bailiffs of the same or
have exercised the Office of Mayor or Bailiffs of the same Town
in Manner aforesaid and also such Burgesses who hereafter
from time to time shall have been Mayors or Bailiffs of the
same and the forty eight Burgesses called the Company of
Eight and forty which for the time being shall be or the major
Part of the same with a convenient time after the Death or
Removal of him the Mayor to afsemble themselves or the major
Part of them in the Guildhall of the Town aforesaid or in any
other convenient Place within the Town aforesaid according to
the ancient custom in the same Town used and there to continue
till they or the major part of them then and there assembled
M 2
164 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
shall have elected nominated and preferred one other honest and
fit Man of the aforesaid Burgesses of the Town aforesaid in
the Room of him so dead or put out of his Office and that he
so elected and preferred to the Office of Mayor having first
taken a Corporal Oath according to the ancient Custom of the
same town may have and exercise that Office during the residue
of the same Year and until another of the aforesaid Burgesses
shall be elected and sworn to that Office and so from Time to
Election of as often as the case shall happen AND if it shall happen the
oMDcath!>C e Bailiffs of the town aforesaid which for the time being shall be
or either of them shall die or be removed from his or their
Office of Bailiffs of the TOWN* aforesaid that then and so often
it shall and may be lawful for the Mayor and the remaining
Bailiff of the Town aforesaid and the Burgesses which heretofore
have been or have exercised the Office of Mayors or Bailiffs
of the same Town as aforesaid or hereafter shall have been
Mayors or Bailiffs of the same Town and the forty eight Bur-
gesses called the Company of Eight and forty which for the time
being shall be or the major Part of the same for the time being
within convenient time and according to the ancient Custom
in the same Town used after the aforesaid Bailiff or Bailiffs shall
so die or be removed from their Office aforesaid to assemble in the
Guildhall in the Town aforesaid or in any other convenient place
within the Town aforesaid and that thereupon it shall and may
be lawful for them or the major part of them so assembled to
elect nominate and prefer One or two of the aforesaid forty eight
Burgesses of the Town aforesaid called the Company of Eight
and fforty as the Case shall require into the Place or Places of
him or them the Bailiff or Bailiffs so dead or from their Office
removed And that he and they so as aforesaid elected and pre-
ferred may have and exercise that Office or those Offices during
the Remainder of the same Year and until another or others of
the aforesaid forty eight Burgesses of the Town aforesaid shall
be elected and sworn to that Office of Bailiff or Bailiffs of the
same Town a Corporal Oath according to the Ancient Custom in
the same Town used being first to be taken and so as often as
Recorder. the Case shall so fall out AND FURTHER we will and by these
Presents for us our Heirs and Successors Do Grant and Confirm
* Fifth skin.
1796. 165
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town afore-
said and their Successors that they and their Successors shall
for evermore have one honest and discreet Man learned in the
Laws of our Kingdom of England in Form hereinafter expressed
to be chosen and nominated who shall be and shall be called
the Recorder of the Town aforesaid who shall have power to
appoint from Time to Time as to him shall seem necessary and
convenient one honest and discreet Man learned in the Laws
of our Kingdom of England to be his Deputy and him to remove Deputy
. Recorder.
as occasion may require And we have made assigned nominated
constituted and appointed and confirmed and by these Presents
for us our Heirs and Successors DO make assign nominate con-
stitute and appoint and confirm our well beloved and Right Trusty
SPENCER EARL OF NORTHAMPTON 18? now Recorder or exercising First Recorder.
the Office of Recorder of the said Town to be the first and new
Recorder of the Town aforesaid AND WE HAVE made assigned
nominated constituted and appointed and by these presents for
us our Heirs and Successors DO make assign nominate constitute
and appoint our beloved SPENCER PERCEVAL 188 Esquire Barrister First Deputy
at Law to be the first and new Deputy Recorder of the said Town Recorder-
Subject nevertheless to Removal at the Discretion of the said
Spencer Earl of Northampton or his Successor or Successors
Recorder or Recorders of the Town aforesaid And that after the
Death or Removal of the aforesaid Spencer Earl of Northampton Election of
from the same Office of Recorder the Mayor and Bailiffs and the
major Part of the Burgesses which heretofore have been or have
exercised the Office of Mayor or Bailiffs of the Town aforesaid in
Manner aforesaid or hereafter shall have been Mayors or Bailiffs
of the Town aforesaid and the aforesaid forty eight Burgesses
called the Company of Eight and forty of the Town aforesaid
187 Spencer Compton was born 5th August, 1738, and succeeded as eighth Earl
of Northampton, i8th October, 1763. He was appointed Recorder of Northampton,
ist November, 1763, and Lord Lieutenant and Gustos Rotulorum of Northampton,
shire, ipth July. 1771. He died the 7th April, 1796.
188 Spencer Perceval, the son of John, Earl of Egmont, and Catherine Compton
sister of the Earl of Northampton, was born ist November, 1762, educated at
Harrow and Trinity College, and called to the Bar. He was elected one of the
members for the borough of Northampton in 1797 ; became successively Solicitor
General, Attorney General, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Prime Minister.
He was shot on the nth May, 1812, as he was entering the House of Commons,
and was buried at Charlton, in Kent.
i66
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Election of
Chamberlain
and other
Officers.
for the time being or the major part of them be empowered and
in convenient time may elect nominate and prefer from time to
time as often as they shall think fit and necessary one honest
and discreet Man learned in the Laws of England for the Recorder
of the Town aforesaid and that he which after the Death or
Removal of the said Spencer Earl of Northampton shall be
elected nominated and preferred as aforesaid to the Office of
Recorder of the Town aforesaid may and is enabled to have
exercise and enjoy that Office of Recorder of the Town aforesaid
until the ffeast of Saint Michael the Archangel next following
the Nomination and Election aforesaid a Corporal Oath for
faithfully discharging the Office aforesaid being first to be taken
AND FURTHER we will and by these Presents for us our Heirs
and Successors do grant to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and their Successors that the
Mayor of the Town aforesaid for the Time being- and such
Burgesses of the Town aforesaid who have heretofore been
Mayors or who have heretofore exercised the Office of Mayor
of the same Town or who shall hereafter have been Mayors of
the same Town or the major of them shall and may have
Power Ability License and Authority from time to time for
ever as often as they shall think fit and necessary for the
public Good of the Town and Corporation aforesaid to elect
and nominate so many and such Chamberlains and other Officers
and Ministers for the Good Service and Common Benefit of the
Town aforesaid as afore time they have been lawfully accus-
tomed to elect and nominate or hereafter shall think fit and
necessary to elect and nominate which Officers and Ministers so
as aforesaid elected and nominated or to be elected and nominated
shall severally do and execute their Offices unto which they
shall be elected and NOMINATED* according to the Exigent of
Law and as heretofore they have been lawfully accustomed to do
and execute MOREOVER we have Granted and for us our Heirs
^uetCy0rRecordee"r, and Successors DO by these Presents grant to the aforesaid Mayor
thlee MdJr'men Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town aforesaid and their Successors
of the PMC? that the Mayor and the Recorder and the Deputy Recorder of
the Town aforesaid and their Successors which from time to
time shall be during the time that they shall happen to be
First Mayor
Recorder, De-
Sixth skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 167
in those Offices and one Burgess of the same Town for the
time being who last was Mayor of the Town aforesaid and
three other of the more honest circumspect and skilful Bur-
gesses of the Town aforesaid who heretofore have been or have
exercised the Office of Mayors of the Town aforesaid or hereafter
shall have been Mayors of the same Town and who shall be
elected and chosen by the said Mayor Bailiffs and such Burgesses
as afore time have been or have exercised the Office of Mayors
or Bailiffs in Manner aforesaid or hereafter shall have been
Mayors or Bailiffs and the forty eight Burgesses commonly called
the Company of Eight and fforty or the major Part of them from
Year to Year or from time to time according as need shall
be shall be our Justices and every of them shall be our Justice
and of our Heirs and Successors as well for the Keeping of
Peace in the same Town and the Liberties and Precincts of the
same as for the execution of the Statutes about Vagabonds Arti-
ficers Labourers Weights and Measures and for the restraining
and punishing Offences against the same within the same Town
and Liberties and Precincts of the same and also to do and
execute all and singular other the Matters and Things which
belong and appertain to the Office of Justice of Peace and that
the same Mayor the Recorder the Deputy Recorder the Burgess
who last was Mayor and three Burgesses in form aforesaid to
be nominated and elected or any three of them of which Wee will
that the Mayor and the Recorder or the Deputy Recorder for
the time being be two may have and shall have for evermore
full Power and Authority to enquire hear and determine within
the aforesaid Town Liberties and Precincts of the same as well
in the Presence of us our Heirs and Successors as in the
Absence of us our Heirs and Successors of and concerning all
and all manner of Murders ffelonies Misprisions Riots Routs
Oppressions Extortions {forestalling Regrating Offences Trespasses
Things Matters and Articles and all other Things whatsoever
within the Town aforesaid Liberties and Precincts of the same
from time to time arising and happening which to the Office
of a Justice of Peace any ways belong or are incumbent or
which hereafter shall happen or may belong and be incumbent
or which by any means ought or may be enquired of heard and
determined before Justices of the Peace together with the Cor-
rection and Punishment thereof and generally to do and execute
168 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
all other Things within the Town aforesaid and the Liberties and
Precincts of the same as fully wholly and in as ample Manner
and Form as any Justice or Justices of the Peace of us our
Heirs and Successors in our County of Northampton or elsewhere
within our Kingdom of England before time have had or exercised
or hereafter can and may have and exercise by Virtue of any
Commission Act of Parliament Statute Law or Custom or by any
other lawful Means whatsoever and that in as large manner and
form as if the same had been specially and by special Words
expressed contained and mentioned in these our Letters Patent
and that without any special Commission or Commissions Mandate
or Warrant from us our Heirs or Successors hereafter to be had
Country obtained or procured in that behalf WE will also and by these
intermeddle. ° Presents for us our Heirs and Successors Do Grant and Command
that our Justices of Peace and of our Heirs and Successors in the
County of Northampton aforesaid or any of them do not any ways
hereafter intermeddle or concern themselves or himself with the
Town aforesaid or the Liberties of the same or any of them or
have or exercise any Jurisdiction of or about any Causes Things
or Matters whatsoever which by Virtue of these our Letters
Patent do belong or in any wise appertain to the Justice of the
Bailiffs to exe- Peace of the Town aforesaid And that the Bailiffs of the Town
aforesaid for the time being shall from time to time execute
the Precepts and Warrants of the same Mayor Recorder and
other Justices of the Peace within the Town aforesaid for the
time being and all other Things whatsoever like as any Sheriff
of this our Kingdom of England by the Mandate of any Justice
of Peace in any the Counties of us our Heirs and Successors
within our said Kingdom hath been accustomed to do return or
justices to hear any wav execute AND further we have nominated assigned and
offentes^d16 constituted and by these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors
Offenders. do assign nominate and constitute the aforesaid Thomas Hall
the now Mayor or now exercising the Office of Mayor of the
Town aforesaid and the aforesaid Spencer Earl of Northampton
the now Recorder or now exercising the Office of Recorder of the
same town and the aforesaid Spencer Perceval the Deputy Recorder
of the same Town to be our Justices of the Peace and of our
Heirs and Successors within the Town aforesaid and the Liberties
of the same Town so long as they respectively shall continue and
be in their said respective offices of Mayor and Recorder and
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 169
Deputy Recorder of the same Town AND* WE HAVE also nominated
constituted and appointed and by these Presents for us our Heirs
and Successors do nominate constitute and appoint Jeremiah
Briggs189 who last was Mayor or who last exercised the Office of
Mayor of the said Town to be one other of our Justices of the
Peace and of our Heirs and Successors within the Town aforesaid
and the Liberties of the Same until the Election of a H-s^'iWliyor
of the same Town and that they our said Justices and others our
Justices of the Peace to be appointed as aforesaid in the Town
aforesaid for the Time being or three of them of which we will
the Mayor and the Recorder or Deputy Recorder for the time
being to be two have and every of them have full Power and
Authority to enquire of hear and determine within the Town
aforesaid and the Liberties and Precincts of the same as well in
the Presence of us our Heirs and Successors as in the Absence of
us our Heirs and Successors of and concerning all and all Manner
of Murders ffelonies Misprisions Riots Routs Oppressions Ex-
tortions forestalling Regrating Trespasses Offences and all other
Things whatsoever within the Town and the Liberties and
Precincts of the same from time to time arising or happening
which any ways belong or are incumbent or hereafter shall
happen or may belong or be incumbent to the Office of a Justice
of the Peace or which by any means ought or may be enquired
of heard and determined before Justices of the Peace together
with the Correction and Punishment thereof and to do and execute
all other Things within the Town aforesaid and the Liberties of
the same as fully and wholly and in as ample Manner and Form
as our Justices of Peace or of our Heirs or Successors in the
County of Northampton, or elsewhere within our Kingdom of
England heretofore have had and exercised or hereafter can or
may have or exercise by Virtue of any Commission Act of Par-
liament Law or Custom or by any other lawful Means whatsoever
and in as ample Manner and Form as if the same had been
Specially and by Special Words expressed mentioned and contained
in these our Letters Patent and that without any Mandate or
Warrant from us our Heirs or Successors in that Behalf to be
hereafter procured or obtained and that our Justices of the Peace
or of our Heirs or Successors of the same County of Northampton
* Seventh skin.
189 Jeremiah Briggs was mayor of the town in 1793-4.
170 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
aforesaid or any of them may not hereafter intermeddle or concern
themselves or himself within the Town or Liberties of the same
nor have or exercise any Jurisdiction of any Causes Things or
matters whatsoever which to the Office of a Justice of Peace of
the Town aforesaid by Virtue of these our Letters Patent do
belong or in any ways appertain AND moreover of our further
Grace and of our certain Knowledge and meer Motion we will
and by these Presents Do Grant and Confirm for Ourselves Our
Heirs and Successors to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses of the said Town of Northampton and their Successors
that they from henceforth for ever may have and hold and
are empowered and enabled to have and hold one Court of
Record to be holden in the Guildhall of the said Town of North-
ampton before the Mayor and Bailiffs of the said Town for the
Time being of all and all Manner of such like Pleas Plaints and
actions as well real as personal and mixed and of whatsoever
Debts Accompts Trespasses Covenants Contracts Detentions and
Contempts together with such and such like Views of ffrank Pledges
Leets and other Courts within the said Town of Northampton
Liberties Precincts and Jurisdictions of the same arising happen-
ing or befalling as and at such days and Times and in such
like manner and form as heretofore hath been used and accustomed
in the said Town and the same Pleas Plaints and Actions may
hear and determine and Judgment thereupon give and Execution
thereupon make for ever in the same Manner and form and by
such and the like ways means and procefs by which and as
heretofore hath been used in the Town aforesaid and that all
Juries impannelled Inquisitions Attachments Precepts Mandates
Warrants Judgments Procefses and other Things whatsoever
necefsary to be done within the Town or Liberties of the
same touching or concerning the Causes aforesaid be done and
executed by the Officers and Ministers of the Town aforesaid for
the time being according to the due form of Law in the like
Cases heretofore used in the Town aforesaid and that the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the said Town of Northampton and
their Succefsors may have and shall have to the use and benefit
of the same all and all Manner of ffines and Amerciaments
Poundage on Execution and all other Profits of and in the Court
aforesaid or by reason or pretext of the same Court from time
to time for ever arising happening or contingent AND ALSO we
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 171
will and by these presents for us our Heirs and Succefsors Do writ™ °f
Grant and Confirm to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors that
from henceforth for ever they may have and shall have Return
of all our Writs and Precepts and of our Heirs and Successors
and Execution of the same and Summon of our Exchequer and
of our Heirs and Successors within the Town Liberties and Pre-
cincts of the same of and concerning all and every the Thing and
Things within the same Town Liberties and Precincts of the same
by any Means whatsoever arising so that no Sheriff or other
Bailiff or Minister of us or of our Heirs or Succefsors may enter
or presume to enter the Town Liberties and Precincts of the
same for the Execution of the same Writs or for Summon and
Attachments in Pleas of the Crown or other the Things aforesaid
or to do or execute any other Office there unlefs on Default of
them the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their Succefsors
AND MOREOVER of our especial Grace of our certain Knowledge Mayor to be
' Clerk of the
and meer Motion WEE* GIVE AND ORDAIN and by these Presents Market,
for us our Heirs and Successors do grant and confirm to the
same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their Succefsors that
every Mayor of the said Town of Northampton for the Time
being be and shall be Clerk of the Market within the same
Town Liberties and Precincts of the same and that the said
Mayor after he shall take his Corporal Oath well and faithfully
to execute the Office of Clerk of the Market in Manner and
Form in the same Town heretefore used may have occupy and
hold the Office of Clerk of the Market within the same Town
Liberties and Precincts of the same together with all and every
the Things to that Office appertaining and belonging and that
every Mayor of the said Town for the Time being shall and
may execute and do all Things which any ways belong to or are
incumbent on the Office of Clerk of the Market within the same
Town of Northampton Liberties and Precincts of the same with-
out any molestment or impeachment of us our Heirs or Successors
or of any of our Ministers or Officers whatsoever And further Grant of Fine9
for the bettering of the State of the same Town and that other m
common Burdens there may from time to time be the better
and more easily supported we will and have granted and of our
* Eighth skin.
172 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
especial Grace and of our certain Knowledge and meer motion
for us our Heirs and Successors by these Presents Do Give and
Grant and Confirm to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the Town aforesaid and their Succefsors all and all Manner
of Issues fBnes Amerciaments Ransoms Penalties Things lost
and forfeited of all and every the Burgesses Persons resident
and not resident whatsoever within the aforesaid Town Liberties
and Precincts of the same and any of them before our Justices
of Oyer and Terminer and of our Heirs and Successors within
the aforesaid County of Northampton and before our Justices of
Assize and of our Heirs and Successors in the same our County
of Northampton and before our Justices of Gaol Delivery and
of our Heirs and Successors in the said County of Northampton
and before our Heirs and Successors their Justices for the keep-
ing of the Peace and to hear and determine of divers ffelonies
Trespafses and other Misdemeanors in the said County of
Northampton assigned or to be assigned and before our Heirs
and Successors their Justices or Commissioners upon the Statute
of Sewers within the aforesaid County of Northampton afsigned
or to be assigned and before the Mayor Recorder and two
Burgesses for the time being or three of them as aforesaid
Justices of the Peace of us our Heirs and Successors within
the Town Liberties and Precincts of the same being and before
the Mayor of the said Town for the time being Clerk of the
Market of us our Heirs and Successors within the same Town
and the Liberties and Precincts of the same and also before
all other Justices Commissioners or Ministers of us our Heirs
and Successors whatsoever within the aforesaid County of North-
ampton to be forfeited lost foregone imposed made done offered
Grant of Deo- or an^ ways sustained AND FURTHER of our more abundant
anddEstrays£s' Special Grace and of our certain Knowledge and meer Motion
for us our Heirs and Successors Do Give and Grant and Confirm
to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town
aforesaid and their Succefsors all and singular Deodands Goods
and Chattels Waifs Estrays Goods Chattels Debts Rights and
Credits of ffelons and ffugitives Self Murderers Persons Outlawed
and put in Exigent and of other Persons whatsoever attainted
convicted or condemned from time to time happening growing
or arising within the Town aforesaid and the Liberties of the
same and to us our Heirs or Succefsors belonging or apper-
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. IJ3
taining AND also all and singular the {forfeitures and Profits Grant of aii
of all and singular Recognizances had taken and acknowledged forfeited.
before the Mayor Recorder Deputy Recorder and other the
aforesaid Justices of our Peace or before any one or more of
them within the Town aforesaid for the Peace or good Behaviour
towards us our Heirs or Successors and our liege People or
for the appearance of any Person or Persons before the afore-
said Mayor Recorder and other the aforesaid Burgesses Justices
of our Peace and of our Heirs and Successors there depending
or to depend forfeited or to be forfeited from time to time
and to Us Our Heirs and Successors any ways belonging or
appertaining and also the fforfeitures and Profits of all and
singular other Recognizances before the Mayor Recorder Deputy
Recorder and other Justices of our Peace or of our Heirs or
Successors or before any one or more of them within the Town
or Places aforesaid for any other Matter Cause or Thing
whatsoever had taken or acknowledged or to be had taken or
acknowledged and that it may and shall be lawful for the Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the said Town of Northampton and
their Successors all and singular Such like Issues ffines Amer-
ciaments Ransoms Penalties and fforfeitures and all and singular
the Premises above by these Presents afore granted from time
to time to collect take seize and levy by the proper Ministers
of the aforesaid Mayor Bailiff and Burgefses and their Succefsors
and that without any Writ Warrant or Procefs from us our
Heirs or Succefsors our or their Exchequer or from any other
Court at Westminster to be issued made or in anywise obtained
any Law usage Course or Custom of the said Exchequer or other
our Courts heretofore had made or used or any other thing
to the contrary thereof notwithstanding and the same Issues ffines
AMERCIAMENTS* fforfeitures and profits to receive have and con-
vert to the proper Use Behoof Benefit and Profit of the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their Succefsors for ever and
thereof themselves to put into Pofsefsion and Seizin without
Account or any other thing thereof or any Part or Parcel thereof
to us our Heirs and Succefsors to be rendered paid or made
TO HOLD to the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the said
Town and their Succefsors without impeachment Disturbance
Ninth skin.
174 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Molestation or Hindrance of us our Heirs and Succefsors or of our
Justices Sheriffs Escheators Coroners or any other Officers or
Ministers of us our Heirs and Succefsors whatsoever And for the
better levying of the same ffines Ifsues Profits forfeitures Goods
Chattels and other the Premises by these Presents before granted
we will and by these Presents for us our Heirs and Succeisors
Do give and grant to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses
of the Town aforesaid and their Succefsors full Power License
and Authority in the Name of them the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gefses and their Succefsors or else in the Name of us our
Heirs or Succefsors to sue for and recover the aforesaid ffines
Issues Profits Amerciaments forfeitures Deodands Goods Chattels
and other the Premises by these Presents before granted or any
Parcel thereof against any Person or Persons whatsoever in any
Court of Record according to the Law of this our Kingdom of
England and the same so recovered to levy receive have and
convert TO the only and proper Use and Behoof of them the
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town aforesaid and their
Successors Wherefore we will and by these Presents for us our
Heirs and Successors do charge and command the Treasurer
Chancellor Under Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer and all
other Officers and Ministers of us our Heirs and Successors for
the time being to whom in this Behalf it shall belong that
they direct and cause to be directed all and whatsoever Writs
and Procefses which in this behalf shall be requisite according
to the Course and Custom of the Exchequer aforesaid to be
made against whatsoever Person and Persons with the aforesaid
Issues ffines Amerciaments {forfeitures Goods and Chattels and
other the Premises or with any Thing of the Premises charged
or to be charged and also that after the levying or recovery
of the same Premises that our said Treasurer Chancellor Under
Treasurer and Barons of our Exchequer and of our Heirs and
Succefsors from time to time shall pay and deliver or cause
to be paid and delivered the same Premises to the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town aforesaid and their
Succefsors without any Accompt or any other thing therefore
To us our Heirs or Successors any ways to be rendered paid
or made and these our Letters Patent or the Inrollment of
them shall be from time to time unto the aforesaid Treasurer
Chancellor Under Treasurer and Barons of the said Exchequer
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 175
and of our Heirs and Successors and to all other our Officers and
Ministers and of our Heirs and Succefsors of the said Exchequer
for the time being a sufficient Warrant and Discharge in this
behalf AND FURTHER of our more abundant special Grace and Grant of
Chamber
of our certain Knowledge and meer Motion we have given granted Lands,
ratified and confirmed and by these Presents for us our Heirs
and Successors do give grant ratify and confirm to the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses and their Succefsors all those
Lands Tenements and Hereditaments whatsoever commonly called
or named Chamber Lands situate lying and being in or near the
said Town of Northampton in the aforesaid County of Northamp-
ton or elsewhere which the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses
of the aforesaid Town of Northampton or their Predecefsors by
whatsoever Name or Names or by whatsoever Incorporation or
Incorporations or whether incorporated or not have heretofore of
right and lawfully had held and enjoyed by Virtue of any Letters
Patents or Grants to them by us or any of our Progenitors
heretofore made or granted or by any lawful Custom Prescription
or Usage or by any other lawful means whatsoever AND ALSO Grant of
all and singular wastes void Soils Purprestures and Improve-
ments within the Town and Liberties of the same being to have
hold and enjoy the same Lands Tenements and Hereditaments
called Chamber Lands and Wastes void Soils Purprestures and
Improvements and other the Premises to the aforesaid Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgefses and their Succefsors for ever Yielding
therefore yearly to us our Heirs and Successors such the same
of such Sort and in all Points alike Rents Services and Demands
whatsoever which to us or our Progenitors for the same
Premises before time have been due paid or answered and no
others all which Things we will and by these Presents command
to be kept inviolably AND WHEREAS we are credibly informed Power to take
that the Mayor of the aforesaid Town of Northampton and his ni£ncesRecog"
Predecefsors by whatever Names they were called or have SSTakd1**
been incorporated from the Time whereof the Memory of Man
is not to the contrary have used and YET* DO USE to take
Recognizances between Merchant and Merchant and to make
Execution thereof according to the form of the Statute of Mer-
chants and the Statute of Acton Burnell in that Case made
* Tenth skin.
i76
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Town Clerk.
Election of
Town Clerk.
and provided we therefore willing that the ancient Custom so as
aforesaid in the same Town used be from henceforth for ever
continued in the same Town of our especial Grace and of our
certain Knowledge and meer Motion for us our Heirs and
Successors do by these Presents grant ratify and confirm to the
aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of North-
ampton aforesaid and their Successors which for the time shall
be from henceforth for ever may have according to the Custom
aforesaid full power and authority to take all whatsoever Recog-
nizances between Merchant and Merchant and to make Execution
thereof according to the fform and effect of the aforesaid Statute
of Merchant and the aforesaid Statute of Acton Burnell in that
Case made and provided AND FURTHER of our abundant Grace we
do by these Presents assign nominate appoint and make our
beloved John Jeyes now public Clerk of the Town aforesaid
called the Town Clerk to the first and new Clerk of us our
Heirs and Successors to take and write the aforesaid Recog-
nizances according to the form and effect of the Statute aforesaid
willing that the same John Jeyes shall be and continue in the
same Office of publick Clerk of the same Town from the
making of these Presents until the Day of the ffeast of Saint
Michael the Archangel if he shall so long live and so long as
he shall behave himself well in that Office and from the same
ffeast until some other person fit for it shall be nominated and
elected and sworn to that Office according to the Custom in the
same Town used AND FURTHER we will and by these Presents
for us our Heirs and Successors do grant to the aforesaid Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and their Successors
that the Mayor of the Town aforesaid for the time being and
such Burgesses who have been or have exercised the Office of
Mayor of the Town aforesaid in Manner herein before mentioned
or hereafter from time to time shall have been Mayor of the
Town aforesaid according to the Custom in the same Town used
or the major part of the same yearly shall elect nominate
assign constitute and make within ten Days next following the
aforesaid first Day of August whatsoever fit Man to them shall
seem to be good to be the Public Clerk or Prothonotary called
Town Clerk of the Town aforesaid and that the Public Clerk or
Prothonotary of the Town for the time being so as aforesaid
elected nominated assigned constituted and made from time to
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 177
time and at all times shall continue our Clerk and of our Heirs
and Successors to take the aforesaid Recognizances according to
the form of the Statute in that Case made and provided and
him and every public Clerk or Prothonotary of the Town afore-
said so from time to time elected nominated assigned constituted
and made we do for us our Heirs and Successors by these
Presents create make and constitute our Clerk and of our Heirs
and Successors to take and write the aforesaid Recognizances
according to the Form and Effect of the Statutes aforesaid
MOREOVER we will and of our especial Grace and of our certain Grant of nine
Knowledge and meer Motion for us our Heirs and Successors
do give grant and confirm to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses and their Successors that they for ever may have these
nine ffairs or Marts within the Town aforesaid and the Liberties
of the same in every Year severally in Manner and Form
following to be holden viz. that the said Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses may have and hold one ffair or Mart of the said ffairs
or Marts at the said Town of Northampton in every Year
for ever on the twenty eighth Day of ffebruary the fifth day of
April the fourth Day of May the nineteenth Day of June the
fifth day of August the twenty sixth Day of August the nine-
teenth Day of September the twenty eighth Day of November
and the nineteenth Day of December and the Day preceding
and the Day next following each and every of the said ffair
Days in every Year AND ALSO of our Grace aforesaid for Three Market
us our Heirs and Successors we do give grant ratify and
confirm unto the said Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the town
of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors that they may
have and hold and have Power to have and hold within the
Town aforesaid like as heretofore the Mayor Bailiffs and Bur-
gesses of the said Town have been accustomed to have and
hold a free Market on every Wednesday Friday and Saturday
in every Week through the Year for ever with Tollage and all
Liberties Courts of Pipowder and free Customs to such ffairs
Marts and Markets pertaining or belonging yet so as the afore-
said ffairs Marts and Markets be not to the Hurt of other
neighbouring Markets Fairs or Marts Wherefore We Will and
firmly command for us our Heirs and Successors that the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses and their Succefsors for ever may
have and hold the aforesaid ffairs and Marts at the Town of
178 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Northampton aforesaid or within the Liberties of the same in
every year and those Markets on those Days in every week as
beforesaid for ever and that they may have levy and take in
all ffairs Marts and Markets aforesaid such reasonable toll or
Tolls or Tollage for Beasts Chattels and other Things sold and
bought in ffairs and MARKETS* aforesaid as lawfully and of right
is had taken or levied in any Town Borough or City in the
County of Northampton or as they or their Predecefsors by
whatsoever Name or Names or by whatsoever Title of Incor-
poration known or incorporated or whether they were incorporated
or not have been at any time heretofore accustomed lawfully
Free Customs to take and levy WE Will also and grant and confirm to the
aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid
and their Successors that they have hold use and enjoy for ever
all the Liberties ffree Customs Privileges and Quittances aforesaid
according to the Tenor and Effect of these our Letters Patent
without any Let or Hindrance of us our Heirs or Successors
whatsoever being unwilling that the same Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses of the Town aforesaid or any of them or any one of
the Burgesses of the Town aforesaid by Reason of the Premises
or any of them be disturbed molested vexed burthened or any
wise disturbed by us or by our Heirs Justices Sheriffs Escheators
or other Bailiffs or Ministers of us our Heirs or Successors
Freemen not to whatsoever AND FURTHER We Will and by these Presents for
be impannelled .
before Country us our Heirs and Successors Do grant and confirm to the afore-
the King be said Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and
Party. J B
their Successors that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and
ffreemen of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and their Suc-
cessors be not put nor any of them be put or impannelled to
appear in any Appeals Juries Assizes Recognizances or Inquisitions
whatsoever before us our Heirs and Successors their Justices assigned
to take the Assizes or Writs of Nisi Prius or to hear or determine
of Treason ffelonies or other Misdemeanors or of the Peace within
our County of Northampton or before our Heirs or Successors
their Commissioners of Sewers or other Commissioners whatsoever
or before Escheators or other Commissioners assigned to enquire
of Matters belonging to the Office of Escheators or before any
other Justices Sheriffs Escheators Bailiffs Officers and Ministers
Eleventh skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 179
of us our Heirs or Successors without the aforesaid Town of
Northampton or the Liberties of the same nor shall they or any
of them forfeit any Amerciament to us our Heirs or Successors
on that Account in any wise therefore but be thereof quit and
discharged and every of them be and shall be from time to
time for ever quit and discharged unless those Juries Assize
Pleas or Inquisitions concern us our Heirs or Successors AND Fines for
non-acceptance
MOREOVER We Will and by these Presents for us our Heirs and °f Corporate
J Offices.
Successors Do grant to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors that
if any Person or Persons being a Burgess or ffreeman of the
same Town for the time being shall be lawfully nominated and
elected according to the Manner and form in this present
Charter directed to bear or exercise any Office or Place in the
same Town and such Person .or Persons having due knowledge
and notice of such Election had and made shall refuse and deny
to accept or exercise the Office or Place Offices or Places unto
which he or they shall be nominated or elected that then and
so often it may and shall be lawful for the Mayor and such
Burgesses who have been Mayors of the Town aforesaid for the
time being and the forty eight Burgesses commonly called the
Company of eight and forty or the major part of them to tax
and impose reasonable ffines and Amerciaments upon such refuser
or refusers as to the same or to the major part of the same shall
seem to be reasonable to the Use of the Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses aforesaid and the same to sue for and recover by Action
of Debt in any of our Courts at Westminster AND FURTHER We £.ines °n the
•* Members for
Will and by these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors Do "ot attending
J Assemblies.
grant to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town
of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors that if any one
or more of the Members of the said Corporation shall at any
time or times hereafter neglect or refuse to attend at any
Assembly or Assemblies of the said Mayor Bailiffs and Burgeses
to be hereafter from time to time held by Virtue of these
Presents for the transacting the Business and Affairs of them the
said Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and having had due Knowledge
and Notice of such Assembly or Assemblies and not assigning
or causing to be assigned to the Mayor and Justices or any
three of them for the time being at the said Assembly a good
and sufficient Cause or Causes for their non-attendance it shall
N 2
l8o NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and may be lawful AND We do hereby authorise impower and
command the Mayor and Justices of the said Town or any three
of them to inflict and impose a reasonable ffine or ffines on such
Member or Members so absenting himself or themselves as afore-
said not exceeding twenty Shillings nor less than six Shillings
and eightpence of lawful Money of Great Britain to be forfeited
to the Use of us our Heirs and Successors and to be levied and
recovered by Procefs from our Court of Exchequer according to
the Course and Custom of our said Court and as any other
ffines set lost imposed and forfeited to the Use of us our Heirs
or Successors by any Law Custom Use or Prescription what-
Power to soever are or may be levied and recovered AND MOREOVER
&c., not ' We Will and by these Presents for us our Heirs and Successors
a year. Do give and grant to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors special
License Power and Authority to have purchase receive and
pofsefs to them and their Successors for ever Manors Messuages
Lands Tenements Meadows Pastures ffeedings Woods Underwoods
Rectories Tithes Rents Reversions and other Hereditaments
whatsoever as well of us our Heirs and Successors as of any
other Persons whatsoever so as the same Manors Messuages
Lands Tenements and other Hereditaments do not in the Whole
exceed the clear yearly value of fifty pounds above all Charges and
Reprisals the Statute for not putting of Lands or Tenements in
Mortmain or any other Statute Act Ordinance or Proviso here-
tofore had made ordained or provided or any other Thing Cause
or Matter whatsoever to the contrary thereof in anywise
May take notwithstanding WE give also and by these Presents for us our
Lands, &c., by to r^
Devise &c. Heirs and Successors Do grant to any whatsoever Subject to us
£50 a. year. our Heirs or Successors special License full Power and Authority
that they or any of them may and can lawfully and without
any Danger give grant sell devise or alien any Manors Messuages
Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments whatsoever to the
aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their Successors so as
aforesaid all the Manors Messuages Land TENEMENTS* AND OTHER
HEREDITAMENTS so to the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and
their Successors to be as aforesaid given granted aliened or
devised do not in the whole exceed the clear yearly Value or
* Twelfth skin.
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. l8l
Rent of fifty pounds besides all Charges and Reprisals the Statute
for not letting of Lands or Tenements in Mortmain or any other
Thing Cause or Matter whatsoever to the contrary thereof in
anywise notwithstanding AND FURTHER of our like special Grace ^"former10" of
and of our certain Knowledge and meer Motion We do for us Grants-
our Heirs and Successors give grant and confirm to the aforesaid
Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid and their
Successors all and singular the Letters Patent Charters and
Confirmations of whatsoever our dearest Progenitors and Ancestors
to the same Mayors Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of
Northampton aforesaid and their Successors by whatsoever Name
or Names of Incorporation before times made granted and con-
firmed and all and singular Gifts Grants Confirmations Restitutions
Customs Ordinances Explanations Articles and all other Things
whatsoever in whatever Letters Patents or Charters of whomso-
ever our Progenitors or Ancestors Kings or Queens of England
and also all and singular the Things in the said Letters Patents
Charters Grants Confirmations or in any of them contained recited
specified confirmed or explained and all and singular the Juris-
dictions Authorities Privileges Liberties franchises Quittances
Immunities ffree Customs and also all and singular Manors Lands
Tenements Purprestures ffree Piscaries ffishings and Hereditaments
whatsoever which the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of
the Town • aforesaid or their Predecessors by the Name of the
Burgefses of the Town of Northampton or by the Name of the
Burgefses of Northampton or by the Name of the Mayor and
Commonalty of the Town of Northampton or by the Name of
the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses of the Town of Northampton
or by any other Name whatsoever by reason or force of any
Letters Patents Charters or Confirmations of any of our Pro-
genitors Predecefsors and Ancestors heretofore Kings and Queens
of England at any time or times have had or reasonably have
used or exercised We hold firm and good and for us our Heirs
and Successors as much as in us is We accept and approve and
all and singular the same to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and
Burgesses of the Town of Northampton aforesaid by the Tenor
of these Presents We do ratify and confirm To have hold enjoy
and exercise all and singular the Premises to the same Mayor
Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Northampton aforesaid and
their Successors for ever as fully freely and entirely and in as ample
182 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Manner and Form as if they had been severally singularly and
particularly in these Presents expressed named declared and
recited Yielding therefore to us our Heirs and Successors
all such the same such kind and in all points alike Rents
Services and Demands whatsoever which to us our Progenitors
or Ancestors have heretofore been due paid or answered for the
Restoration of same Premises and no other nor more WE Will moreover and
of our special Grace for us our Heirs or Successors Do grant
that to the aforesaid Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town
of Northampton aforesaid and their Successors all and singular
their Authorities Jurisdictions Liberties Privileges franchises
Quittances Immunities and ffree Customs be restored and the
same to them and their Successors We do restore by these
Presents as fully and perfectly as they or their Predecessors in
any the Days of us or any of our Progenitors Ancestors or
Predecessors heretofore Kings and Queens of England have freely
fully and beneficially had exercised used or enjoyed or ought to
have exercise enjoy or use the same We Will also by these
Presents for us our Heirs and Successors and of our special grace
do grant that although the same Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of
the Town aforesaid have not hitherto used but perhaps hnve
abused some one or more of the Authorities Jurisdictions Liberties
Privileges ffranchises Immunities Quittances and ffree Customs in
the aforesaid Letters Patents and Charters or in any part thereof
contained or any other their Customs on any Case Emergent yet
they the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town aforesaid
and their Successors the same their Authorities Jurisdictions
Liberties Privileges ffranchises Immunities Quittances and ffree
Customs whatsoever totally disused or abused and every of them
from henceforth fully may enjoy and use without let or
hindrance of us our Heirs or Successors Justices Sherriffs
Coroners Escheators or any other Bailiffs or Ministers whatsoever
of us our Heirs or Successors any Cause Matter or Thing
whatsoever in time past had made and provided to the contrary
thereof notwithstanding AND FURTHER We Will and by these
Bu^gesse^'1^8' Presents for us our Heirs and Successors We ordain and
utyC°Recordrep" strictly command that the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses
&c7nto tike Recorder Deputy Recorder Common Clerk and all other
Supremacy and Officers and Ministers of our Town of Northampton aforesaid
and their Deputies and also all Justices of our Peace and of
LETTERS PATENT, 1796. 183
our Heirs and Successors within the Town aforesaid in or by
these our Letters Patent now nominated or by Virtue or
according to the Tenor of the same Letters Patent or of any
other Letters Patents heretofore made or hereafter to be nominated
elected or constituted before they be admitted or any ways in this
behalf intermeddle or any of them respectively do intermeddle
with the Execution or Exercise of the Office or Offices Place or
Places to which they are now as aforesaid respectively nominated
appointed or constituted or hereafter shall be in Form aforesaid
nominated elected and constituted they and every of them shall
take as well the corporal Oath commonly called the Oath of
Allegiance as also the Corporal Oath called the Oath of Su-
premacy upon the Holy Gospel of God before such Person or
Persons as by the Law and Statutes of this Kingdom of England
are at present appointed and assigned or hereafter to be assigned
or appointed for to give and Administer such Oaths AND Recorder, DeP-
FURTHER We Will and do declare our Royal Mind That no an/ Town cierk
to be approved
Recorder Deputy Recorder or Town Clerk of the Town aforesaid by the King.
hereafter to be elected or appointed do intermeddle in such
Office or Offices or any of them respectively before they and
every of them be respectively allowed of by us our Heirs or
Successors any Thing in these Presents or any other Thing Cause
or Matter whatsoever to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing For as much as express mention &c IN WITNESS
whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent
WITNESS ourself at Westminster the second Day of April in the
thirty sixth Year of our Reign
BY A WRIT OF PRIVY SEAL
WILMOT
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in English, on twelve skins of parchment,
28 inches wide, and 22 inches deep.
Each skin is ornamented with heraldic and floral designs all
printed from copper plates. The first skin is most highly orna-
mented, and within the initial G is a portrait of the head and
shoulders of the King, in full flowing wig, with chain of a knight
of the garter round his neck.
Each skin bears an Inland Revenue stamp of the value of
forty shillings.
184 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The great seal of England in green wax, somewhat mutilated,
remains attached to a green and white cord.
On the back it is indorsed : —
"26"
"Northampton New Charter."
of
30TH AUGUST, 1827.
'"PHIS grant is a license from the Crown to the Corporation,
enabling them to exchange lands situate in the Parish of
Saint Giles, for lands situate in Cotton End. It appears to be the
only grant of the kind made to the town.
Abbreviated Transcript.
GEORGE THE FOURTH by the Grace of God of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of the
Faith To ALL to whom these Presents shall come Greeting
WHEREAS the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of Northampton have
humbly represented to us THAT the town of Northampton is an
ancient Borough and by virtue of the Charter of 36th George III
[hereinbefore printed at page 154] the Petitioners are a Corpor-
ation and are possessed of a piece of land called the Long Close
containing 4 acres and 3 roods late in the tenure of the Rev.
John Watts And also a piece of land called the Great Close
containing 27 acres and 26 perches late in tenure of Robert
Norman divided into two parts the South containing about 16
acres late in the tenure of William Brown and the North con-
taining about n acres late in the tenure of Moses Jeffery which
pieces of Land are part of the Chamber Lands belonging to the
Petitioners situate in Cotton End in the Parish of Hardingston
and County of Northampton and contain in the whole 31 acres
3 roods and 26 perches and abut on the Northampton Turnpike
LETTERS PATENT, 1827. 185
Road on the East THAT John Thomas Butt of Nowhall in the
County of Wilts Esquire is possessed in trust for Edward Bouverie
and Catharine his wife of two closes situate in the Parish of
Saint Giles and Town of Northampton containing respectively 14
acres 2 roods and 22 perches and 10 acres and n perches
formerly in the occupation of John Duckley and late of John
Odell and William Odell Samuel Simons and Edward Peach and
the piece of land called Barnes Meadow containing 10 acres and
ii perches formerly in the occupation of William Gutton after-
wards of John Odell and then of Charles Whitworth THAT the
Petitioners are satisfied that the lands situate in Cotton End and
the lands situate in Saint Giles Parish are equal in value THAT
the said John Thomas Butt hath proposed to the Petitioners to
convey to them the lands in Saint Giles Parish in exchange for
the lands in Cotton End AND THAT the Petitioners under the
said Charter are entitled to purchase lands not exceeding the
yearly value of fifty pounds and the lands so proposed to be
taken in exchange are above such value THE Petitioners there-
fore most humbly pray us that we would be pleased to grant
them our Royal License in Mortmain to take a conveyance of
the lands in the Parish of Saint Giles in exchange for the lands
in Cotton End KNOW YE therefore that we of our special grace
certain knowledge and mere motion HAVE given and granted
and Do give and grant to the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of
the Town of Northampton our special license to accept a con-
veyance of the lands in the Parish of Saint Giles To HOLD the
same to the use of the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses and their
successors for ever IN WITNESS whereof we have caused these
our letters to be made patent WITNESS ourself at our Palace
at Westminster the thirtieth day of August in the eighth year
of our reign
By writ of Privy Seal
SCOTT
This document, which is with the muniments of the borough,
is written in English, on one skin, 25 inches wide and 19^ inches
deep ; ornamented with portrait of the King, shields of arms,
and other devices. An Inland Revenue stamp of the value of
£30 is impressed on the margin.
l86 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
The whole of the great seal in yellow wax, in fair condition,
remains attached in a tin box.
It is indorsed : —
" The Mayor Bailiffs and Burgefses
" of the Town of Northampton
" License in Mortmain to take
" Lands in Exchange."
5$ 6
iv+ c+ 76+
SEPTEMBER, 1835.
An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations
in England and Wales.
act was passed to provide for the rule and government
of all cities and boroughs mentioned in the schedule thereto,
and for the absolute repeal of all grants, charters, or letters
patent which were inconsistent with the act.
Under this statute the government of the town was entirely
remodelled, many of the old privileges being taken away and
many new ones granted.
Northampton is mentioned in the schedule to the act as a
corporate body, styled " The Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of
" Northampton," with three wards, six aldermen, and eighteen
councillors, and as being one of the boroughs to have a separate
Commission of the peace.
of 6$ ttHfeiam iv+
5TH MARCH, 1836.
is the first separate commission of the peace appointing-
justices to act for the borough ; previous to this time the
justices were appointed by the general letters patent or charters
granted to the corporation. This grant was made in conformity
with the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, sec. 98.
Transcript.
WILLIAM THE FOURTH by the Grace of God of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of the
Faith To our beloved and faithful the Mayor of the Borough of
Northampton and the Mayor of the said borough for the time
being Marmaduke Newby Malster Daniel Hewlett George Peach
and George Baker Gentlemen Henry Lenton Stockburn Malster190
and George Buxton Gentleman Greeting KNOW YE that we have
afsigned you and every of you jointly and severally our Justices
to keep our Peace in and throughout the Borough of Northampton
and to keep and cause to be kept all Ordinances and Statutes
made for the Good of our Peace and for the Conservation of the
same and for the quiet rule and government of our People in
all and every the Articles thereof in the said Borough according
to the form and effect of the same And to chastise and punish
all persons that offend against the form of these Ordinances
or Statutes or any of them in the aforesaid Borough as it ought
to be done according to the form of these Ordinances and Statutes
And to cause to come before you or any of you all those who
to any one or more of our People concerning their bodies or the
190 Marmaduke Newby was mayor of the town in 1812-3. Daniel Hewlett in
1826-7, George Peach in 1837-8, and 1838-9, and Henry Lenton Stockburn in
1830-1. Marmaduke Newby was one of the bailiffs in 1808-9, Daniel Hewlett in
1816-7, ar>d Henry Lenton Stockburn in 1825-6.
l88 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
firing of their Houses have used threats to find sufficient security
for the Peace or their good Behaviour towards us and our People
And if they shall refuse to find such security then them in our
Prisons until they shall find such security to cause to be safely
kept AND THEREFORE WE COMMAND YOU that you diligently
apply yourself to the keeping our Peace Ordinance Statutes
and all and singular other the Premises and perform and fulfil
the same in form aforesaid doing therein what to Justice apper-
taineth according to the Laws and Customs of England IN
WITNESS whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made
Patent WITNESS Ourself at Westminster the fifth day of March
in the sixth year of Our Reign
EDMUNDS
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in English on a plain skin of parchment, 24
inches wide and 20 inches deep.
The great seal in yellow wax, somewhat broken, remains
attached.
On the back is written : —
" Northampton
" Commifsion of the Peace"
This grant is contained in a box of contemporary date, bound
in red leather, tooled with gold.
(pofcn* of 6$ T&iffiam iv+
MAY, 1836.
TN consequence of the Municipal Corporations' Act, 1835, it
became necessary that the Corporation should obtain a new
grant to enable them to hold a separate court of quarter sessions
in the borough for the trial of prisoners.
Petition was therefore made to the King, and the new
grant was accordingly obtained.
LETTERS PATENT, 1836. 189.
The fees paid in passing this grant under the great seal
were as follows : —
Secretary of State's Office ...
Attorney General's Office
Signet Office
Privy Seal Office
Crown Office
Chief Clerk for passing the Patent (remitted)
Messengers, &c.
£38 9 6
Transcript.
WILLIAM THE FOURTH BY THE GRACE OF GOD of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of
the Faith To our Trusty and Welbeloved The Mayor Aldermen
and Burgefses of the BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON and to the
Inhabitants of the said Borough and to all Others whom it may
concern Greeting WHEREAS the Council of the said Borough
has pursuant to the provisions of an Act passed in the sixth year
of our Reign entitled "An Act to provide for the Regulation of
"Municipal Corporations in England and Wales" signified by
Petition to Us in our Council the desire of the Council of the
said Borough that a Separate Court of Quarter Sessions of the
Peace shall continue to be holden in and for the said Borough
Now KNOW YE that We having taken the Matter of the said
Petition into our Consideration and being above all things anxious
to promote the due administrattion of Justice have thought fit to
comply with the said Petition And we therefore do hereby grant
unto the said Borough that a Separate Court of Quarter Sessions
of the Peace shall henceforth continue to be holden in and for
such Borough according to the Provisions of the said Act AND
FURTHER know ye that We do assign the Recorder for the time
being of the said Borough our Justice to enquire the Truth more
fully by the Oath of good and lawful Men of the aforesaid
Borough by whom the Truth of the Matter shall be better known
of all and all Manner of Felonies and Misdemeanors and of all
and singular other crimes and offences of which Justices of our
IQO NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Peace may or ought lawfully to enquire by whomsoever or after
what manner soever in the said Borough done or perpetrated or
which shall happen to be there done or attempted and of all and
singular Articles and Circumstances and all other things whatso-
ever that concern the Premises or any of them by whomsoever
and after what manner soever in our aforesaid Borough done
or perpetrated or which hereafter shall there happen to be
done or attempted in what manner soever And to inspect all
Indictments whatsoever so before him the said Recorder taken
or to be taken or before others late our Justices of the Peace
in the aforesaid Borough made or taken and not yet determined
and to make and continue Processes thereupon against all and
singular the Persons so Indicted or who before the said Recorder
hereafter shall happen to be Indicted until they can be taken
surrender themselves or be outlawed And to hear and determine
all and singular the Felonies Misdemeanors and offences aforesaid
and all and singular other the premises according to the Laws
and Statutes of England as in the like case it has been accus-
tomed or ought to be done before and by our Courts of Quarter
Sessions in England And the same Offenders and every of them
for their Offences by Fines Ransoms Amerciaments Forfeitures
and other means as according to the Law aud Custom of England
or form of the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid it has been
accustomed or ought to be done to chastize and punish PRO-
VIDED ALWAYS that if a case of difficulty upon the determination
of any of the Premises shall happen to arise before the said
Recorder for the time being then Judgement shall in nowise be
given thereon before him unless in the presence of one of our
Justices of the one or other Bench or of one of our Justices
appointed to hold the Assizes in the County of Northampton
AND therefore We command the said Recorder for the time
facing that to keeping the Peace Ordinances Statutes and all
and singular other the Premises he diligently apply himself And
that at certain days and places which he shall appoint for those
purposes into the Premises he make enquiry and all and singular
the Premises hear and determine and perform and fulfil them in
the aforesaid form doing therein what to Justice appertains
according to the Law and Custom of England Saving unto Us
the Amerciaments and other things to Us therefrom belonging
AND We command by the tenor of these Presents the Proper
LETTERS PATENT, 1836. IQI
Officers of the aforesaid Borough that at certain days and places
which the said Recorder shall make known to them they
cause to come before him the said Recorder so many and
and such good and lawful Men of the said Borough by whom the
Truth of the Matter in the said Premises shall be the better
known and enquired into IN WITNESS whereof We have caused
these our Letters to be made Patent WITNESS Ourself at
Westminster the twenty seventh day of May in the sixth year
of our Reign
BY WRIT OF PRIVY SEAL
EDMUNDS
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in English on one skin of parchment, 28
inches wide and 21 inches deep.
It is ornamented with portraits of the King and Queen, the
royal arms, and other designs, printed from copper plates.
Fragments of the great seal, in yellow wax, inclosed in a
tin box, remains attached to the red cord.
It is contained in a leather covered box, similar to that
containing the previous grant.
tytttnt of id
iyTH NOVEMBER, 1837.
'T^HIS grant is drawn on the same lines as the previous com-
mission of the peace, the same magistrates are mentioned,
and in addition thirty one new names, which were no doubt
added at various ways.
Transcript.
VICTORIA by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith To
our beloved and faithful the Mayor of the Borough of North-
IQ2 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ampton [and so forth, repeating the letters patent of the 6th
William IV., hereinbefore printed on page 187.] WITNESS Ourself
at Westminster the seventeenth day of November in the first year
of our Reign
Edmunds
In the margin of this document are written the following
additional names : —
William Williams Currier Thomas Sharp Civil Engineer Thomas
Hagger Merchant George Armfield Chemist Thomas Cooke
Esquire John Marshall Grocer Francis Parker Edward Harrifson
Harwell William Hollis John Groom William Strong George Barry
Esquires William Hensman Grocer William Roberts Ironfounder
Edmund Francis Law Architect William Harrison Barwell John
Phipps James Berridge Norman Draper Mark Dorman Stationer
James Barry Chemist Pickering Phipps Perry Miller William
Adkins Merchant Thomas Shepard Leather Seller Joseph Gurney
William Hill William Jones Henry Marshall Henry Mobbs
William John Peirce Richard Turner James Wetherell Esquires191
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are written in English on a plain skin of parchment, 23
inches wide and 18 inches deep.
The great seal of England, encased in leather, is attached.
On the back is written : —
" Northampton."
191 William Williams was mayor of the town in 1840-1, and 1853-4 ; Thomas Sharp
in 1839-40, and 1846-7 ; Thomas Hagger in 1838-9 and 1851-2 : John Marshall in 1828-9,
1829-30; Francis Parker in 1849-50, and 1850-1; Edward Harris Barwell in 1842-3,
1843-4, 1844-5; John Groom in 1845-6; William Hensman in 1857-8; William
Roberts in 1858-9; Edmund Francis Law in 1859-60; John Phipps in 1831-2;
James Berridge Norman in 1867-8; Mark Dorman in 1863-4; James Barry in
1865-6, and 1888-9; Pickering Phipps Perry in 1870-1 ; William Adkins in 1869-70,
and 1874-5; Joseph Gurney in 1875-6, and 1879-80; William Jones in 1872-3;
Henry Marshall in 1871-2 ; William John Peirce in 1881-2 ; and Richard Turner
in 1873-4.
of
IST MARCH, 1878.
HPHE present borough magistrates sit by virtue of this com-
mission, which is drawn in a somewhat different manner
from the preceding commissions, the mayor of the town is not
mentioned by name, and the magistrates' names are placed in a
schedule in order of seniority.
Transcript.
VICTORIA BY THE GRACE OF GOD of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith To
the Mayor of the Borough of Northampton now and for the time
being and the persons named in the Schedule hereto GREETING
KNOW YE that We have assigned you and every of you jointly
and severally Our Justices to keep Our Peace in and throughout
the said Borough of Northampton and to keep and cause to be
kept all Ordinances and Statutes made for the good of Our Peace
and for the conservation of the same and for the quiet rule and
government of Our People in all and every the articles thereof in
the said Borough according to the Form and Effect of the same
and to chastise and punish all persons that offend against the
form of those Ordinances or Statutes or any of them in the
aforesaid Borough as it ought to be done according to the form
of those Ordinances and Statutes and to cause to come
before you or any of you all those who to any one or more
of Our People concerning their Bodies or the firing of
their houses have used threats to find sufficient security for the
Peace or their good behaviour towards Us and Our People and
if they shall refuse to find such security then them in Our
Prisons until they shall find such security to cause to be safely
kept AND therefore We Command you that you diligently apply
yourselves to the keeping Our Peace Ordinances Statutes and
all and singular other the premises and perform and fulfil the
same in form aforesaid doing therein what to Justice appertains
O
194 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
according to the Laws and Customs of England IN WITNESS
whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent
WITNESS Ourself at Westminster the first day of March in the
forty first year of Our Reign
C. ROMILLY
SCHEDULE.
Francis Parker — William Hensman — William Williams — Ed-
mund Francis Law — John Phipps — James Berridge Norman — James
Barry — Pickering Phipps Perry — William Adkins — Thomas Shepard
— Joseph Gurney — William Hill — William Jones — Henry Marshall —
William Mills— William Coulson— William Griffiths Hollis— Robert
Derby — Richard Cleaver — Moses Philip Manfield — Thomas Adams —
Frederick Covington — George Minards Tebbutt — Daniel Stanton —
Frederick George Adnitt — John Bingley — Robert Brice — The Judge
of the County Court of Northamptonshire holden at Northampton
for the time being — Henry Martin — Henry Edward Randall —
Henry Butterfield — Samuel Smith Campion —
These letters patent, which are with the muniments of the
borough, are printed in English on one skin of parchment, 22\
inches wide, and 17^ inches deep.
This document, with the exception of the name of the borough,
the date, and the schedule, is entirely printed. The royal arms
are also printed in the centre of the first line.
The great seal is impressed on a wafer in the left hand
upper corner.
It is indorsed: —
" Borough of Northampton.
" COMMISSION of PEACE/'
Qtor^mnpfon
LANCUM, PLAINTIFF, AGAINST LOVELL, DEFENDANT.
Easter Term ist William IV., to Michaelmas Term, 4th William IV.
This was an action brought by Mr. Lancum against Mr.
Lovell, to recover two small sums of money — one, the sum of
fourpence, for a toll claimed for the entry of a waggon into the
town of Northampton, and the exit of the wagon with a load ; —
the other, the sum of eightpence, which was claimed for a market
•toll, a penny per beast for beasts bought by the defendant in
the market of Northampton.
This cause was tried before the Lord Chief Justice Tindal
.and a Special Jury at the Guildhall, in the City of London,
commencing the 2ist Febrbary, 1832.
The case was heard at great length, and evidence of all kind
was taken. Domesday Book, Pipe Rolls, Hundred Rolls, Charters,
Acts of Parliament, Leases, Tables of Tolls ; the Town Clerk,
Solicitors, Tolls Collectors, Farmers, Carriers, and Butchers were
alike examined. The counsel employed were eminent, and the
arguments used learned, and the summing up concise and brilliant.
Ultimately the jury found a verdict for the Plaintiff on both
counts, with damages of one shilling.
On the igth April, 1832, a new trial was moved for, on the
ground of the admission of improper evidence ; and the rule for
the new trial was granted. On the loth of May, 1832, cause
was shown why the new trial should not be granted. The
question was argued at great length, and for many days, and on
the 2ist January, 1833, Mr. Justice Park gave judgment that the
rule for the new trial should be made absolute.
The cause again came before the Court on the 5th November,
1833, when counsel stated that the rule for a new trial had not
been drawn up, but that the Defendant had in the meantime
•died. Nine days later Lord Chief Justice Tindal gave judgment
that the rule for a new trial should be discharged, remarking that
they "had better choose a younger defendant next time," as he
thought " the old gentleman did quite right to withdraw himself."
Thus this memorable trial came to an end.
O 2
Cuetfumarunt
Circa 1460.
''"PHIS volume containing the customs of the town of Northampton,
is the most quaint and valuable of all the borough records.
Indeed it is a treasure such as few English boroughs possess.
It was compiled about the middle of the fifteenth century by an
unknown hand, and treats of the customs, usages, evidences, and
laws then existing in the town, to which were added in subsequent
times later rules and decisions. The compilation was evidently
most carefully made for the purpose of preserving the records
and law precedents of the borough in accessible form, and it gives
us the only knowledge we possess of much that is contained
in its pages. The original documents from which the book was
first compiled have been destroyed, some probably intentionally as
being of no further use after the clerkly transcript was made
about 1460, some probably in the Great Fire of 1675, when the
Guild Hall was partially burnt, and many of the Corporation
records were lost. The LIBER CuSTUMARUM, however, was for-
tunately saved intact.
The transcript is beautifully executed. The book consists of
148 leaves of fine vellum, 8| inches by 6J inches. The initials
are mostly rubricated, but many of the capitals at the com-
mencement of the paragraphs have not been filled in. Both the
black and red inks are in good condition. The appearance of
the last page indicates that after being written, the manuscript
was kept unbound for some years, and the binding itself is
evidently some thirty or forty years later than the handwriting.
It is late fifteenth or early sixteenth century work. The boards
are of oak, and the vellum leaves are sewn round four leather
bands which pass twice through the boards to afford a secure
hold. The boards are covered with calf. There are four square
plates of brass at the corners of each cover, and a lozenge of
brass is affixed in the centre ; and in the middle of each of the
ten brass plates is a small boss for ornamentation. Attached to
198 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
the front cover by leather hinges were two brass clasps, of which,
however, only the lower now remains. The covers are stamped,
front and back, with a double running pattern, made up of
different devices in small panels — two birds like swans addorsed,
with wings disclosed ; a creature like a large fish ; a fleur de lis ;
an insect with five wings disclosed on each side ; and so on.
The condition of the book is excellent, nearly every letter
being still perfectly legible, but there are one or two slight
imperfections such as the mutilation of a few pages.
Of the character of the contents of the book it is not necessary
here to speak. On the fly-leaves have been written a few
common law forms, two in Latin and two in mediaeval English.
Then follow some letters patent from the monarch to the mayor,
leading up to the table of contents of the volume as originally
transcribed. This table commences :
Hie incipit tabulam debet
vsagez et Customez de Norhampton.
Fifty-eight headings are given in this table, all in English. As
the chapters themselves end on the verso of folio 26, it is at
once apparent that the table is but a faint indication of the
contents of the book, which comprise various ordinances, acts of
parliament, charters, and other documents. The whole is written
indifferently in contracted Latin, Norman-French, and mediaeval
English.
[FORM OF WRIT OF SUPERSEDEAS.]
Forma ad ffaciend lupfedias
p Accoe tnfgr9 & contempt!
Johes Afteley Maior Ville
Norht ac Juftic9 ad pacem dni
Regis infra ean3m conf9uandf
Affign baftis eiufdm & eo£
cuilib} Saltm Quia Edmund
Preftori harp de Norht cap? &
in prifona ifcm sub cuftodia
vra deten? exiftit ad refpon-
dendf . tam dno Regi qm Thome
Kendale taillor &c de piito
tranfgi9 & contemp? contra
formam ftatuti de f^uien? edit ac
iam p eo qd i3m Edmundus
inuenit coram me fufficient
fecur9 eflendf coram nobis ad
px hufteng it>m tenendf &c ad
refpondendf tam dni Regi qm
pfa? Thorn Kendale de $miff
Jdeo ex pte dni Regis vobis &
al? vrnl mando qd Jfat Ed!m
Aprifona si ea de caufa & non
Form for making supersedeas 192 CFoIio
for an action of trespass and con-
tempt
John Asteley193 Mayor of the
town of Northampton and a
Justice appointed to keep the
peace of our lord the King within
the same to the bailiffs of the
same and each one of them Greet-
ing Whereas Edmund Preston
Harper 194[?] of Northampton has
been taken and remains detained
in prison there in your custody to
answer as well our lord the King
as Thomas Kendale tailor &c on
a plea of trespass and contempt
contrary to the form of the statute
made concerning serving-men and
forasmuch as the same Edmund
has found before me sufficient
security for appearing before us
at the next hustings there to be
held etc to answrer as well our
lord the King as the aforesaid
192 This js a wrjt that ijes ;n certain cases, and signifies in general a command to
stay some ordinary proceedings at law, on good cause shown, which ought other-
wise to proceed.
193 John Asteley was mayor of the town in 1488-9.
194 Edmund Preston Harper cannot all be the man's name. No double Christian
names were in existence at that date. Probably he was a harper by trade.
200
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
alia detin fine dilacoe delifcar
faciatis Et hoc non omitatf &c
Da?
Thomas Kendale concerning the
premisses Therefore on behalf of
our lord the King I charge you
and each of you that if the
aforesaid Edmund is detained in
prison for that reason and no
other you cause him to be set
free without delay and that you
do not neglect this &c Given
[FORM OF SUPERSEDEAS.]
N maior ville NorM ac
Juftic9 ad pacem dni Regis infra
eantfrn conf9uand Aflign baftis
eiufdm & eo£ cuilibt3 Saltm Quia
N de N cap? & in pibna ibm
sub cuftodia vra deten? exiftit ad
refpondendf tam dno Regi qm
Thome hunt &c de plac9 tnfgre9
et contemp? contra formam
ftatuti de i^uient edi? ac iam p
eo qd idm N inuenit coram me
fufficient fecur9 eifend [cor-]
am nobis ad px hufteng9 i'bm
tenendf poft ffm sci hillari px iam
futur9 &c
N195 Mayor of the town of
Northampton and a Justice ap-
pointed to keep the peace of our
lord the King within the same to
the bailiffs of the same and each
of them Greeting Whereas N
of N has been taken and re-
mains detained in prison there in
your custody to answer as well
our lord the King as Thomas
Hunt etc on a plea of trespass
and contempt contrary to the
form of the statute made con-
cerning serving-men and foras-
much as the same N has found
before me sufficient security for
appearing before us at the next
hustings there to be held after
the feast of Saint Hilary next
ensuing &c
195 N. or nomen, standing in each case for the
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2OI
[FORM OF POWER OF ATTORNEY.]
[Folio ib.]
mHE xij dale of June the yere of or lorde god m1 iiijc
iiijxx viije [Thursday, i2th June, 1488] J. A. B. of
Norhampton &c M9chaunt of the ftaple at Calif . haue made .
Ordeigned . and fubftitude . C. D. m9chaunt of the fame ftaple
myn Atfney gyvyng and grauntyng vnto the feide C. D. my full
power And auctorite to Receyve oufee Allyeve and delyue all the
marchaundife} appteigning vnto me now beeyng w'in the
Jurifdiccion of the faide ftaple Or that by me fhalbe fente vnto the
feide Eftaple hereaftl And the mony growyng of the Sales of the feide
rSchaundife} to the feide . C. D. or his Attrney to Receyve Jt . to the
vfe and profite of me Conftituante af? the Rule and Ordenaunce of
the feid Eftaple . Now made or to be made to emplede prfue a Refte
difarefte and in a Refte holde his dettours . be fore all man9 of Jugf .
.and Jufticf as the feid . C. D. Att'ney aforefeid fhalbe thought
neceifarie and expedient To bynde the feid A. B. for his own .
prope maters and cawfis in allman9wife To Receive acquite . and
gyve acquitaunce fuche as fhall appteyn To Subftitute oon . or moo
Jn his abfence And theym and theyr Power . to revoke . at his pleafhe .
And gen9allye . all other thyngf neceifarie and behoefull in the
]pmiHi3 To do Sey fpede and equite . as fully as yf J the feide . A. B. [Folio aa.]
conftituant fhuld mow doo . yf J were jlfente in my prope parfon.
Promyttyng the fame . A. B. to have and holde ferme and aggreable
at all Daies . all and euy thyng that by the forfeide C. D. his Attrney .
Or by his fubftitute or fubftitute} or eny of theym fhalbe doon feid
fpede and executid in the Jmyffi} and in yche of theym And ou
that the feyde . A. B. Conftituante Wyllyth and grauntythe by this
Jfent entre . That allman9 of power by hym grauntid to eny man9
pfon before the day of this entre . be as voyde and of non valure ne
effecte in enywyfe in tyme to come To all and fmgier the jlmilfi}
above wreton J haue Setto my Scale &c And at the fpeciall Jnftaunce
and Requefte of me Jn fo moche as my Seale Js vnknowen to many
of you . the worfhipfull il'r. if. G. mayre of the toun abovefeid hath
fetto the seall of his office the day and yere Abovefeide &c
202 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[FORM OF RELEASE TO THE BAILIFFS.]
LFoiio 2b.] To the K7ng our !iege lorde 196
Pleafe it your highnes of yor moft noble and habundaunt
grace to graunte vnto youre trewe and feithf ull liege men JohnWattes197
And Thomas Bodyngton late Bailliff} of your town of Norhampton
your gracious ires of Prive Seall in form as folowith to be made .
And the feide late Bailliff} fhall pray to god for the pferuacon of
your moft noble and Royall aftate
Henry by the grace of god &c. To the Treforer and Barons of
our Efcheker gretyng . fforafmoche as the men of the town of
Norhampton ar to vs ye rely Charged in the Sum of cxxli of and
for the fferme of the fame town . of the which cxx" to vs due as from
the ffefte of Seint Micheii tharchaungell in the feconde yere of or
Reign vnto the ffeefte of Seint Michell tharchaungell then next
enfuyng . that is to fay for a hole yere John Wattes Thorns Bodyngton
beyng Bailliff} for and by all the feide tyme beyng vppon their
Accompt of their feide office for the fame tyme byn Chargyd vnto us
At & in our Efcheker as in the fame our Efcheker more pleynly
doth Appere of Recorde .We of our fpeciall grace & mere mocion and
for certain Confideracofis fpeally Mevyng . Pardon remitte & releffe
vnto the feide John Wattes & Thomas Bodyngton late baillifff of
our feide town of Norhampton by what foeu name or names thei or
eny of theym ben named . xxijh pcell of the feide cxx" for the feide
[Folio sa.] tyme . And therefor woll and charge you our feide Barons that ye
allowe Acquite and difcharge the feide late baillifff and eu9yche of
them . Ayenfte us in theire feide Accompt of the feide . xxij11 And for
eu9y pcell therof . And that ye furceffe of all man9 pceflfe}
execucions fuytes & demaundes which We haue or may have Ayenfte
theym or eny of theym for the feide xxij" or eny pcell theroff .
That exprefle mencion of the certaynte of the feide Accompt or
eny other thyng Concernyng the pmifles heryn be not hadde or
made or Any Acte ordenaunce} prouyfyon or Reftreynte made or
hadde to the contrary movyng not withftondyng yeuen.
By the Kyng.
196 This release appears to have been a temporary relief, and anticipatory of the
letters patent of 5th Henry VIII., hereinbefore printed on page 113.
197 John Wattes and Thomas Bodyngton were bailiffs of the town in 1487.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 203
[LETTERS PATENT FROM THE KING TO THE MAYOR
CONCERNING THE PEACE OF THE TOWN.]
Trufty and Welbiloued . We grete you wele . Nat dovting but that
your wifdomes can remembre and wele coniidre . that the vfe and
encreceignyng of lad rule and good gou;naunce in eu9y citie and town .
furft & principally pleafeth god . eftabliffheth parfite refte and tran-
quillite . norelfheth and encreafeth loue . cauiith plente and habundance
and lawes to haue their due courfes . iustice to be indifferently [Folio
miniftred and executed . the vniuPfall wele alway inhauncyng and
flouryng bi thefe behalues . And bi the contrary way and vie enfuen
comocions ftrifff debatis pouertie and milbrie and many other
inconueniencf . The pel and daunger whereof muft of reafon be
arrected and leide to the charge of thoo perlbnes . hauyng rule and
auctorite where any mifgou9naunce be haunted if bi thair omilfions and
nealigencf thoffendours be fuffered . to renne in boldenelle vnpunhThed.
And foralmoch as we haue and bere as good mynde and large
affecciori to all our true fubgettf and be delirous of the comon wele
of this our reame as eu9 did any our noble predeceilburs god be our
Juge . Therfore we write vnto you at this tyme . deliring and ftraitly
comaundyng you to endevour you from henfforth bi yor beft wifdomes
and diligence to lee that good rule and fubftanciall guyding be firmely
had and effectuelly folowed in all places w'in yor iurisdiciori . hauyng
fuch good and wile awarte continuelly that if any vagabundf riotus or
vngodly difposed perfonnes reftiant or repairing amonge you prefume
or take vpon thaym . to make any embrac9ies affrayes or debates bi
colour or boldenetfe of lyvereyes or othirwife or to fowe any feducious
langaage arreife any Rumours or forge and contrive newes or
tithingf of vs or any eftatf of this oure land . or of othir w'oute the
the lame . to abufe and blynde our innocent fubgiettf prouokyng and
enducyng thaym to renne or falle into rebellion and difobehTaunce in
fubuerfion of all good rule and policie . Ye than faille nat to attach and
comitte to fuer warde w'oute bailie or deliuerance . all thoo that ye fhall
fynde gylty or fufpect in the Amities and to certifie vs thair names w*
the fpialite of thair offenfis . to thentent that we mayyeueyou for yor
good acquitall our fpiall thankf and to fhewe you therupon our
furthir pleafur . for thair due and lawful punicion . latyng you witt that
if it come to our eeres and pfaite knowledge that ye fuffre such
myfruled people vfying any unfitting langage . or reifmg any rumours
or offending in any poyntis abouereherfed . to escape you unpuniflhed
204
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
f Folio 4a.]
contrarie to yor duete both anempft god and vs . We fhall so fharply
leie it to yor blame and charge w' puniffhment accordyng . as fhalbe
to the ferefull psident and greuous example of al othir ouriubgiettf
and officers difobeifant to execute our like and fpial comaundement
hereaftir . Which thingf therfor we aduise you to call and take to hert
accordyngly . yeuen vndre our Signet at our Caftell of Wyndefor the
vjtl> day of Juyn
[LETTERS PATENT FROM THE KING TO THE MAYOR
RESPECTING ARROW MAKERS.]
To our trusty and welbeloued the Mair and Aldermen
of or Towne of Norhampton
Henricus dei gra Rex Anglie
et ffranc et Dominus Hrbnie
diico sibi Simoni Motce . Saltm
Sciatis qd affignamus te ad tot
sagittarios seu fere sagittar &
barbift ac alios artifices quot
pfcura ita^ que nos infra breue 198
de nouo fieri &ordinariintendims
neceffarij fuint & oportuni ubi-
cumq3 inueniri po?unt tain infra
lifctates qm ex? arreftand et
capiend & eos & eo£ quern It in
opaconib} nris citra 199 facur dicar
sagittar ad vad nra Ciuitate
London nobis feruitur ponend
seu poni faciend necnon ad
huiufmodi sagittas & maherem
eiidem barbift
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to his beloved
Simon 20° Motte Greeting Know
that we have appointed you to
arrest and take as many archers
or makers of arrows and arrow-
heads and other workmen as
shall be necessary and qualified
for the making of . . ,201 which
we have directed in a brief to be
made and ordained anew where-
soever they can be found as well
within the liberties as without
and to place or cause to be placed
them and every one of them in
our service about the making
of the said arrows at our wages
in the city of London to serve
us and moreover to take arrest
and provide for arrows of this
kind and timber for the same
198 Infra breve may possibly mean within a short time.
199 Citra seems corrupt here : it ought to mean without regard to.
200 Simon Motte: No Mayor of this name can be traced, perhaps this Simon
Motte was an Alderman or Bailiff.
201 pernaps arrows.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
205
Sericum ceram plumas & alia
Stuffura & necelfaria quecuq}
que pte p opatoe j]dca9 videbuntr
oportuna p denariis nfis in hac
pte ronabili? Soluendf capiendf
arreitandf & puidendf . Et ideo
tibi pcipim" qd circa jpmiffa dili-
gent9 intendas & ea fac9 &
exequaris informa pdca9 . Damus
autem vnuliis & fingulis vice-
comitib} Majorib} Balliuis ac
fidelib} legeis nsfis quo£ int9eft
in hac parte tenore jpfentin firmit9
in mandatis qd tibi in executone
Jmiifo^ intendentes sint obe-
dientes & auxiliantes in omib}
ut decet . Jn cuius rei teitimonm
has Iras nfas fieri fecim" patentes
T me ipo apud Maidefton t9tio
die Januarij Anno r9 fi quarto .
p billam Magf ordinatoim ipius
Regis
Bacheler
arrow-heads silk wax feathers
and other stuffs and necessaries
whatsoever which in part shall
seem suitable for the aforesaid
work for money of ours in this
portion to be reasonably paid
And so we charge you diligently
to attend to the premisses and do
them and complete them in the
form aforesaid But we give to
all and singular our sheriffs
mayors bailiffs and faithful lieges [Folio
whom it concerns in this part by
the tenor of the presents firmly
in command that they be atten-
tive obedient and assisting to you
in the execution of the premisses
in all things as is fit In testi-
mony whereof we cause these
our letters to be made patent
Witness myself at Maidstone the
third day of January in the
fourth year of our reign [Satur-
day, 3rd January, 1489] By a
bill of the Master of the Or-
dinances of the King himself
Bacheler
206 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[LETTERS PATENT FROM THE KING TO THE MAYOR
RESPECTING ARROW MAKERS.]
Herri bi the grace of god kyng of Englond and of ffraunce and
lorde of Jrelond . To his welbelouyd Symond Motte 202 gretyng .
knowe ye that we haue Afligned the . that afmany arowe makers or
makers of arowes . and arowe hedes and other artificers As that for
the makyng of our arowes the which We within fhorte tyme of newe
to be made and ordeyned . we intende . be neceflary & be honeable
wherefom9e thei may be founde Afwele wlin the lifctees as w'oute
to be arrefted and taken them and euych of them in our9 werkis .
Aboute the makyng of the feide arowes to bee put or do to be put in
our wages in the Cite of London to us for to ferue . And the fame
arowes and tymber for the fame Arowe hedes filk wex ffethurs and
others ftuffures and neceiFaries whatfoeue thei bee the which for the
ga i werkis Aforefaid fhall be fene behoneable for our mony in this ptie
refonably to be paied to take to arreft and to provide . And therfor
to the We comaunde that abowte the pmyfles diligently thow
Attende . And thoo thow doo to be executed in forme aforefaide .
Yevyng to all euych Sherefes Mairis Bailiffes and to other our
true liege people of whom hit fhalbe long in this ptie bi the tenour
of thife jpfent ires ftedefallly yeue in comaundement that the
executon of the pmiffe} thei be attendyng obeiyng & helpyng in all
thyngf as hit fhalbe long . Jn wittneffe of the which thyng thife
ires patentes we haue made wittnefle my felfe att Maidlton the
thirde day of January the ffourth yere of our reign
Bi the kyng Bi bille of the Mailter
of the ordenaunce of the
fame kyng
502 See note 2OI on last page.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 207
[LETTERS PATENT FROM THE KING TO THE MAYOR
RESPECTING THE LEVYING OF TROOPS.]
Trufty and welbeloued we grete you wele and forafmoche as bi
thaduis of our grete counfaile . we haue appointed an Armee of vj m1
men to go in bretayne for the relief and fuccor of the fame in efchewyng
the inconvenient that might enfue to this our realme . We truityng
in your wifdomes and faithfull difpoficions towardis vs hau addreffed
oure Comytfyons to you to thentent that ye f hall calle bi fore you the
gentillf and men of honnour of our Countie of North Wherefore [F°iiojb.]
We defyre and pray you to endeuour you therupon to make
due enferche howe many hable men well and defenfibly Arraied .
We may haue oute of the faide Countie to do vs f^uis in this our
.armee forfaide & to be redy at or porte of Portefmouth the laite day of
ffebruary next comyng eche of theym vjd for xxu myles euy day and
a prefte of thaire wagis for iiij monethes . And that ye devide your
felfe in euy partie of or said Countie in fuch fadde wife as ye may
the rather certifie vs what noumbre of hable pfones arraied as a boue
the fame or faid Countie may make and ye put vs in knowlege hereof
bi the xth day aftir the begynnyng of our pliament Doyng that herin
youre effectuell devoires and diligence fettyng aparte all fauour mede
and pcialite as our efpiall trull is in you Yeuen vndre or fignet
at our Manor of Shenee the xxiiju daie of Decembre
208 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 6a.] HlC INCIPIT TABULAM DEBET VSAGEZ ET ClJSTO-
MEZ DE NORHAMPTON
[TABLE OF THE HEADINGS OF THE CHAPTERS.]
Cap0 j° Off londes and tenementes bought aft9 the vfage and
the Cuftomes of Norhampton and holden a yere &
a day
Cap0 ij° ffor to afke a Gate of londe and in whiche maner
Cap0 iij° That the kyng or the chefe Lord maken grement with
in viij daies of the tenement to hem graunted
Cap0 iiij° Off dower of women aftir the vfages and the lawes of
the toun of Norhampton and how thei fhall be dowed
Cap0 vto Off knowliches of wyfes made of doweryes in the
Court and of other Rightes that to hem myght fallen
Cap vjto If a man take a Wife that hath londe tenement or
Rent of erytage [inheritance] or yeven in fre mariage
how thei may hit sell
Cap vij° If a man take a Wyfe & hath JiTue and aftir ]>e dethe
of that wife take anoper wife and have alib Jflue how
io 6b her erytage & her purchase f halbe porciunde a monge
hem alle
Cap0 viij0 How the hufbonde fhall holde the ffree Mariage of his
wiffe by the Curtafly of Jnglond
Cap0 ix° How a man may londe tenement or Rente laye to wed
with owten Chalenge of Right Eyre or of chefe
lords
Cap0 x° Jff the wardes of Rentes ovir Rennen of tenement in
Norhampton and Recovere he fhall haue be warde
Cap0 xj° How aman may sell his londe tenement or Rent
purchafed alle though his Eyre him wolde w'feyn
Cap xij° Off hem that dwellen in the toun of Norhampton a
yere and a day that ben ftraunge withowte Chalenge of
her lorde
Cap0 xiij° How aman may gefe to his oon doughter a parte of
his herytage or of his purchas withoute geynieyyng of
Eyre or of his chefe lorde
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2OQ
Cap0 xiiij0 That no deceyte be where thorough the Eyre or the CFoho 7a^
chefe lorde be for barred of her Right that toucheth
ffree tenement
Cap0 xv° Off hem that Sofferen her rente too patten A yere or
too or thre in dilheritibun of her tenaunte
Cap0 xvj° Off Rentes and Releves to be hadde aftir the vfages
the toun of Norhampton
Cap0 xvij° Off noyefaunce of walk} hegges or gotters well
dykekyngf or of other lyked thing to neyghbores
Cap0 xviij0 Howe aftraunge marchaunt} shulen comen and byen
wolles ffelles greate hydes hony chefe ffleffch and
other thyngf
Cap0 xix° Off norices and of othir feruauntis aloyned of her
evyll wylle
Cap0 xx° Howe the cuftomes of the toun of Norhampton
fhuleri be paied and in which ftedis
Cap0 xxi° Of diftrefces that ihuin not be taken but it be for [Folio ?b.]
the kynges dette
Cap0 xxij° The peyne of men that arun somoned to be fore the
Maire and comen nott
Cap0 xxiij0 To taken ftallage refonabliche aftir the vfages
Cap0 xxiiij0 Jf debate be amonge Marchaunt} for her marchandife
Cap0 xxv° How the ffifmeris p'uez and flraunge ihulen
iSchanden
Cap0 xxvj° Of certeyn ftedis affigned for baxfte^s $ue5 and
ftraunge
Cap0 xxvij0 Of hem that bryngen to toun burthenes of hay and
ftrawe
Cap0 xxviij0 The forfetures of tymber of wode and of Stokkes to
the baillif} profette
Cap0 xxix° That no marchaunde of Nornt ne bye no man9 of
marchaundife but in ferten ftede affigned
Cap0 xxx° That non huxfter not bye no maner of vitaile be forne
prime Rongen at all halowen chyrche
Cap0 xxxj° That no man of the toun of Norhampton ne emplede [Folio 8a.]
othir owte of the fraunchife by no man9 purchafe
P
210
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Capt° xxxij0
Capt° xxxiij0
Capt° xxxiiij0
Capt° xxxv°
Capt° xxxv j°
Capt° xxxvij0
Capt°xxxviij°
Capt° xxxix0
[Folio sb.] Capt° xl°
Capt° vlj°
Capt° xlij°
Capt° xliij0
Capt° xliiij0
Capt° xlv°
[Folio ga.] Cap0 vlvj°
Cap0 xlvij0
Cap0 xlviij0
Cap0 xlix°
How good mennes ibnes of the toun of Nornt and
othir ftraungers lhall }euen to be put in dufeyn
Tronage and of ffleflhe hewers
Of bochers that bryngen ffreffh hydes to chepyng to
fell ageyns the vfages
Howe the wache lhalbe made in the toun hit for to
kepen . and whenn nede is for other aventours
How the marchaundes of NoRrt lhall goon to ffeires
to hyren shoppes
How marchaundis of Norhamptoii lhall leue hir
godis to ftraungers
How s9uauntes of Norhampton lhall be Reffyued
in to othir feruice of gode men of the toun
Of coneynes made in the toun of Norhampton
ageyne the altate of the toun made
Howe the Regrateris of threde Ihuln makefi her
marchaundife of threde and in which maner
How marchauntis of NorRt Iholn m^chaundifen And
payen her erneft
Of hem that wylle seyne her grete sothe in the
Courte of Norhampton
The maner of cloth makeris howe they sholn be
am^cyed . And what peyne thei Iholn haue for the
defaute that may be founden by the vfages
Of deifters and of othir that caften ftynkyng thyngis
in the kynges hye weie of Norhampton
The fyne that bochers lhall 3uen atte by gynnyng to
the pfite of the toun . Whan thei walle marchaunden
That no bocher ne bye no swyne withoute that he
haue waraunti} of clenneffe
Allfo of bocheris that sellen ffleflh corrupte on her
ftallis that defendid by the vfages of the toun
Of wodours ftraunge that sellen wod in NorM and of
woders that hem harbernyh withoute leue of
Bailliffs
Of marchaunt} of the toun of Norht that marchaunden
with the penys of ftraunge men
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 211
Cap0 1° What aman lhall paie to the profite of the toun for
londe & tenement} bought in the fame toun
Cap0 lj° The peyne of deifters that euell and falfly dyen her
clothe that thei taken of othir
Cap0 lij° Of webfteris that don vp the clothe but by Affie &c.
Cap0 liij° How theife ftraunge wodours fholn maken her gerners CFolio
in the toun of Norhampton
Cap0 liiij0 What power the chefe lorde hath of tenement that
his tenaunt holte of hym in ffee within the ffraunchife
of Norhampton
Cap0 lv° If aman holde atenement in c9teyne of anothir And
the tenement be charged to anothir more fouereyn
chefe And that ilke mene is holden him to aguyten
and Reffeyue the syluer of his tenaunt
Cap0 lvi° How the attachementis of dettis fholn be done of the
ftraunge men in the toun of Norhampton
Cap0 lvij° The ffresh fors of the toun of Northampton Alls well
for pore as for Riche
Cap0 Iviij0 The p'ue men and ftraunge that fholn ben enfraun-
chifed in the toun of Norhampton
P 2
[U]
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 213
SAGES AND THE LAWES OF THE TOWN OF NORHT CFolio
confermed bi the Charteres of diuerfe kynges of Eng-
lond bi the Purchaces of olde wife men of the same
town which theife ben her names writen here That is
to feyn . Peris Adam [and] his sone William [of] the Rows Philip
Jordan [and his] sone Bartholomewe his Brother Rofote harry [and]
his sone Jngram harry [and] his sone Robert of leycestr9 Robert
Gilbert [and] is sone Tyband Rog9 [and] is fone William Rey-
mond [and] his fone Adam [and] his brother Reynald [and] his
brother William of huntyngdon Gilberd Durauntf sone Warmer9
Gobeon howe the Seler9 Robert Truftone [and] his fone henry howe
[and] his fone William Gurney Edward Blounde hewe of Plompton
Adam the Spenfer Richard Ernaldis sone John NeH [and] is fon
Rafe Bedenyfi [and] his fone William Gilberdis sone Jofelyn the
Clerke Ernalde de la porte Water Wau?iiTone Geffrey Waydour9
Richard Waydour9 Jngram Wygeretfbne William Elwynellbne Robert
Brown William Piffcelewe Robert blount Maifter Muchell Belaunt
Rafe de Bofvyle Simon Wytor Alriche god and other203
CAPITULUM PRIMU
[Op LANDS AND TENEMENTS BOUGHT ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM
OF NORTHAMPTON, AND HOLDEN A YEAR AND A DAY.]
If any man refonably aftir the vfages and the lawes of the town
of Norhampton and bi wittneiTe of the Courte of Norhampton. londe
tent or Rente have bought and that londe ten & rente be in pees
with owte Chalenge bi a }ere and a day haue holden ftedefafte mail be
holden that biynge so that the bier ne mail anfwere to no man of
that londe tenement or Rente for non man9e purchafe that vppon hym
may be purchased . But if it be thus That he that by Right that the [Folio iob.]
londe tenement or Rente myght be chalenged in that yere and that day
That that londe tenemet or rent was solde and a kate haue ben owte
of Englond or in prifofi . or withinne age . And if hit fo be that he
haue ben owte of the lond or be in prifon . Or withinne Age . Thanne
at what tyme he cometh too that fame londe tenemet or Rente Be
the Ryght myght chalenge and in that yere and in that day .That he
be comen in to the londe Or owte of prifon . And that he be of ffulle
age in pleyn Courte comen and in that londe tenement Rente by hym
203 The additional words within brackets in this paragraph are entirely conjectural.
214 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
or by other haue fette his chalenge Saued thanne be to hym his accion
of that londe tenement or Rente to chalenge And to recvueron with
write or w'owten write And if he be right may Recoueryn And if
he may not doo fo that yere nor that day That he cometh in to the
londe or owte of preibun or to his age by hym nor by no man ellis to
make chalenge his accion is loofte for euer That londe tenement or
Rent to recuueren
CAPITULUM SECUNDUM
[Or ASKING A GATE OR PURCHASE OF LAND.]
Purveide hit is Allfo that if any man Haue any londes tenementf
or Rentf of his heritage or of purchace and he that londe tenementf
or rentf nedith to fellyn his kyne Allwey mall be mofte nexte to Alice
the Gate 2(M Than any man ellis or the chefe lord if ther be no man
of the lynage And if the chefe lord take the Sales Be he for barred
of the Gate And if it so be that londe tenement or Rent be folde
[Folio iia.] And the Kynne or the chefe lorde yif ther be non of the blode
comen in to the Courte with Jnne the fowre ffirfte plees aftir the Sale
of the londe tenement or rente in the Courte to be Ihewed and
profered to gyfe to the bier for that londe tenement or Rente Allfo
mych as it hym cofte and he shall haue the bying of that londe tene-
ment or Rente so that he make agrement of the payng of mony Aftir
. viij dayes that the Gate is graunted And yif him feluen in the Courte
be Ihewed And the Kynne nor the chefe lorde axith no3t the Gate
within ffowre plees as it is ieide be forne And if he faile of his
Sute of that any of the fowre Courtes lele his Accion and be for done
for euer of the Gate to hauen And if the sale be done oute of the
Courte so that hit be not Ihewd in the courte Then it be faued to the
Kynne or to the chefe lorde here Askying of the Gate to recoueren and
to hauen Alfb ibne as this fale is shewed And if the seller of the londf
tenement or Rente to for barren the kynne or the chefe lorde of her
Afkynge gretter sume of mony haue named than he of the bier
haue receyvid good leve mail be to the kynne That the Gate afke or to
the chefe lorde take the oth of the seller As well as of the byer And
if ij comenners thow thei ben no mo And that the seller leffe then
he Recyven nor the bier laife nor he gave So that all maner ffraude and
Collufion be done awey Alfo so sone as the kynne or the chefe lorde
204 A cate, or purchase, from the old French word achate.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 215
Jn dewe maner proferith penys in pleyne Courte comyn and haue the
Gate Afke thenne anon right be alfo well the seller as the byer
somonyd to come to the nexte court ther after And yf thei come [Folio
not to the Courte be thei diftreyned to come to the Secounde Courte
And if thei at that Courte ne comen Be the londe tenement or Rente
taken into the Kyngis honde bi the Bailies at the thirde Courte And
than by the siluer delyuered into the Baillyff} hondes vnder the Seall
of the Afker to holden tille the ffourthe Courte And if the fourthe
Courte the londe tenement or Rente be not replenyflhed Than be the
Seylbne of fuche londe tenement or Rente dilyueryd to the afker by
the Baylies Saued to the byer when he cometh his relbnable anfwerys.
And if it so be that he that byeth that londe tenement or Rente no
maner collages hath made in that londe tenemet or rent at? that
the Cate of that londe tenement or rent in the courte be afked by the
Kynn or by the chefe lorde not |>at he hath theron leyd Aftir that
the Cate be Alked hym hit lhall be Alowed
CAPITULUM TERTIUM
[Or THE DOWER OF WOMEN.]
Alfo it is purveide that if any man forpoverte or with owte
poverte londe tenement or Rente wolde felleri his fone his doughter
Kynne the chefe lorde ihall not in no man^e wife letten But if it
be so that thei anon Right with Jnne . viij daies and aftir that he
hauyth hem fliewed that he his londe tenement or Rent wolde sellyn
or at the laite withinne the terme that he to hem of his good wolde
3euen wolde therof makyn his grement And if any man wylle his
londe tenement or Rente taken or 3even to fynde him his suftinaunce
terme of his lyfe He that is of his blode lhalbe moft nexte Tha
aitraunge Man so he woll done and fynden in the same maner as [Folio iaa.]
a ftraunge man wolle done
CAPITULUM QUARTUM
[OF THE KING OR CHIEF LORD MAKING AN AGREEMENT WITHIN
EIGHT DAYS AFTER LANDS HAVE BEEN GRANTED.]
Pvrueid hit is allfo that if any man take a wife hit fhall be good to
dowen his wyfe at his wille in A certeyne suiiie of siluer And if he
woll in this man^e that is forto feyne that of that serteyn some
2l6 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of silue be endentures mad betwixte the yever and his wiffe And
hat hit be Enrolled in the Comyn Roll of dywer And if he woll
not dowen his wiffe in a serteyn sume of silue as hit is feide
beforne Be Ihe than dowed after the comen lawe of the londe And
if the wyfe that is dowed of serteyn . holde the londes tenementes or
Rentes Aftir the deth of her hufbonde and her grement be made of
ferteyn . Thanne what tyme that the heyre come and make gree
with the wiffe of the certeyn Thanne be the londes tenement^
or rentf to be heyre delyu9ed And if the Eyre aftir the deth of his
ffadur be not of power to make grement The wiffe of hir serteyn
thanne he shall comaunde that Ihe hold londe tenement or Rent tille
hir grement be made That wiffe ne mall done nor suffre to done
wafte nor diitruxcion in the londes tenementes or rentes And if fhe
make wafte or diitruxcion or suffre to be done lefe for eu9 the londes
tenementis or Rentis Jn which she has done or fuffred to be done
[Folio izb.i wail or diftruccion w'owtyn any recouerer9 of her certyne of the
londes tenementis or Rentis so wafted or deftrued . And that is alfo
well to vnderstonde what so fhe be dowed of serteyn somme of
silu e or by the Comen lawe of londe
CAPITULUM QUINTO
[Or THE GRANTING OF LAND BY A MAN AND HIS WIFE
IN OPEN COURT.]
Alfo hit is purveide that if any man woll fellen his londe tenement
or Rente by the graunte of his wyffe so that he and his wiffe comyn
into pleyne Courte and the wyffe Quyte cleyme to the byer hyr Right
of the dower in pleyn plees And pray to the Courte that the courte
wolde wittneffe That she hath quyte cleymed all hir Right that fhe
may haven in tho londes tenement^ or Rentis by ryght of dower .
heritage . mariage . Or by other Right till the Ende of the worlde that
thyng mall dwellyn ftedfafte . So that she aftir the deth of hir
hufbonde non recouerith lhall haue of tho londes tenementf or
Rentf And hit is to witten That this fame quyte cleyme fhall be
entred in the Commoun Rolle
CAPITULO vj«
[OF A WIFE GRANTING LAND HELD BY HER OF INHERITANCE
OR GIVEN TO HER IN FREE MARRIAGE.]
Alfo hit is purveide that any man take a wyffe that hath londe
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 21J
tenement or Rente of hyr heritage or that is 3oven with hir in franke [Folio
mariage }>oo 3iftes Joynte to geder may thei for proverte or w'owte
poverte fuch londe tenement or Rente sellen And ftedfafte mall ben
that ilke fale so that aftir the dethe of hir hufbonde non Recouere
therof mall hauen . But if a man haue londe tenement or Rent of his
ppre heritage or of his purchafe That liker may ben . And that me ne
may haue no Recouere aftir his deth . And yife any woman take a
hufbonde aftir dethe of her formeft hufbonde And fhe^haue Children
bi the formeft hufbonde . The latter huf bond ne may not that fraunk
mariage nor that heritage Gyffyn nor sellyn That Siker may ben
CAPITULUM SEPTIMO
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO DEVISE LAND TO THE CHILDREN
OF HIS SECOND WIFE.]
Pvrueide hit is alfo that if any man take a Wyffe and gete on hir
Children and aftir the dethe of that wyffe takyth another wyffe . And
of that ilke Secounde wyfe allfo geteth Children The children of the
firfte wyfe whiche that thei be men children or madonys heires of
the purchafes fhall ben . and of the heritage holden in the tyme of the
firft wife . And if aftir the dethe of the firfte wife . or bi forn the deth
of firft wyfe londe tenement or rent haue purchafed Gode leve be to
liym if he will That ilke prchafe }even or by quethen to the children
of j?e fecound wyfe &c
CAPITULUM vnj°
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO BE TENANT BY COURTESY.]
Allfo it is purveide that if any man take a wyffe with free mariage
and gete a Childe on hir And the Crie of the childe be herde with jnne
the hows aftir the deth of the wyfe he Ihall holde that ffremariage to [Folio 130.]
the terme of his lyffe But that ilke fremariage may be neu9 Gyffyn
fellen nor leyen to wedde but aftir the deth of the hufbond Returnen
ihall that mariage to the heires of the wiffe Or to hym that }afe that
free mariage . And if the wife dye with owten Childe Thanne fhall
that free mariage Afor the xl daies Returnen to hym That that }afe
hit or to his nexte heires
2l8 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
CAPITULUM ix°
[OF A MAN SELLING HIS LAND TO A STRANGER AFTER OFFERING
IT TO HIS KlN AND CHIEF LORD.]
Purveide it is alfo that if any man for his pouerte or with owte
pou9te his londe tenement or Rent wolde Sellen or leyen to wedde and
he it haue profered to sellen or to wedde leyen to his kynne or to his
chefe lorde be forn tre\ve men And thei haue hit forfaken well likith
hym thanne to what ftraunge man that he will That ilke londe
tenement or rente sellen or leyen to wedde . So that the kynne nor the
chefe lorde neu ihall hit recouen to haue the a kate or the leying
to ]>Q wedde So that he may Ihewen and averreyn by trewe men to
other there that he profered the thyng to the kynne other to the
chefe lorde and ther thei the thing Refuted . And if it so be that the
kynne or the chefe lord The londe tenement or Rente wollen haven
and 3even Allib much as a ftraunge man Thanne he by forne all
other that ilke lond tenement or rente lhall haven
CAPITULUM x°
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO DISTRAIN FOR RENT.]
[Folio i4a.] Allfo hit is provided that if any man haue Rente vppon any
tenemet and that tenement be forncloled where thorough he may
not entren to diltreyn for his Rente ffirft he mall comyn in to the
Courte and afkyn a warde of the Courte theroffen than lhall hym ben
awarded that he take gode men of the Courte that thei with hym
gooen to the tenement and maken the fyght of the forclofyng
and they fhall taken and fhall make the fight . And thanne fhall
he comen to the Secunde Courte aftur and Seven that he hath
been atte the tenement so as hym was awarded with . ij . gode
men if ther be no mo . whiche ihullen witnellyn that thei hau made
the fight . And that the tenement is forclofed and the man^e of
that forclofyng . Thanne lliall ben awarded and comaunded that
the Bailiff} hym lhall maken entre for to diftreynen for his Rente
By olde entres and old goynges oute And aftur that he haue entred
bi the Baillifs for to diftreynen for his Rente . He lhall diftreynen
by all that he may fynden bi dorres and by wyndowes and all
other maner thyngf not fafte in the erthe And whan he hath so
diftreyned that he ne fynde no more to diftreyne and that the
tenaunt ne make not his peas Thanne lhall he comen to a nother
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2IQ
Courte and Ihewen That he ne fynde no more to diftreyn And
afke aftir warde another a warde And thanne lliall hym ben
awarded that he take good men with hym and that they goon
to the tenement for to seen if they fynden more to diftreyn or
non And he and they fhullen goone And thanne come into the [Folio
Courte with thofe goode men That have the fighte made And if
thei witneffen that ther is no more to diitreynen Thanne ihall
hym ben Awarded that he take the tenement in to his honde
for defaute of sluice And hangen on a gayne the dorres and the
wyndowes . And that he holde hit in his honde a yere and a day
And if the tenaunt come not with Jnne a yere and a day to
maken his grement Aftir that yere and that day mall he comen
to the Courte and fhowen that he hath holden that tenement with
Rente in his honde a yere and a day And that his pees is not
made of that Rente . Thanne hym mail ben awarded that he may
the tenement don to hyren and amendyn his Rente for to saven
So that he ley tymber of oke ne affh ne ffreston to diiheritofoun
of his tenaunt . And if he ley on tymber of Oke hit lhall ben a
covnted for beche And ffrefton for melynn . And his tenaunt or the
next heire come come ther aftir warde and wolde a Counten to hym .
And wille his a grement Seken and 5elden hym his arrurages
And he wolle not Refceyven hem Thanne mall comen the tenaunt
or the next heire to the Courte and fliewen how he hath ben
at his chefe lorde and hym a bode to a counte to hym and
hem proferid to 3elden hym his arrurages and the Reibnable [Folio
Coftages that he hath ther leide owte take tymber of Oke and
frelton And that ne will not Refceyven .Than mall ben the heued
so monned to comen to the next Courte aftir that he fhall be
comaunded be the Courte that he acounte to his tenaunte . And
that he take his Arrurages And if he will not don soo . Thanne
fhall he goon owte ther offen bi awarde so as he entred bi a\varde .
CAPITULUM xj°
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO SELL LAND PURCHASED BY HIM.]
Pvrveide it is alfo that if any man haue londe tenement or
Rente of his owen heritage and other londe tenement or rente
of his purchafe . Good leve be to hym to Gyffen his purchafe
or to sellen to whom hym likes All though his heir wolde hym
with favne
220 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
CAPITULUM xij°
[Op A MAN DWELLING BY THE FRANCHISE OF THE TOWN.]
Graunted hit is alfo that if any man haue dwelled with owten
chalenge of his lorde in the town of Norhampton A yere and
a day And he be fyre howfe holdyng at loot and Scotte he lhall
dwelle ffree ther by the fraunchife of the towne
CAPITULUM xnj°
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO GIVE HIS LAND TO HIS DAUGHTERS.]
Allfo hit is purveide that if A man haue londes tentis or
Rentes of his heritage or of his purchale and he have a doughter
or tweyne or moo . Good leve be to him to }even to his <£
[Folio i5b.] dou3ter a ptie of his londis tenement^ or Rentis in free mariage and
the lorde of the fee hym ne fhall not moun letten nor with feyn
hit So that his sluice be faved nor his lone nor the kynne hym
ne may letten that ought hym may grevene
CAPITULUM xiiij0
[OF A MAN'S RIGHT TO LET HIS LAND FOR A TERM.]
Alfo it is purveide if that any man ne may not his londe
tenement or rente leyen other to wedde ne take to terme ne
longe terme ne fhorte but if so bee that he that leyth hit to
wedde . And he that fhall haue hit comen into pleen plee} . And
sweren that he done hit not to the deceyte of the Right of the
kynne or of the chefe lorde . And if hit so be that the Awarde
ther of ne ben not afhed in pleyne Courte with Jnne the ffirft
fowre plees aftir the thyng be leide to wedde or too terme be
leued and in pleyne Courte fhewed .
CAPITULUM xv°
[OF A MAN'S OMISSION TO DISTRAIN FOR RENT FOR A
YEAR AND A DAY.]
Pvrveide hit is allfb that if no man that may his ffee
diftreynen for his Rente that he is by hynde of whiche tenement
is walle or herberged . and he for the difhherytyng of his
tenaunt suffr the Rente paflen ovyr a yere and a daye or two
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 221
yere or thre or moo That he it afketh not lefe he the s^uyfe of
all thoo yerys owte take the laite yere Jn which yere he hath
made the diftretfe for his Rent But if it so be that he be forne
haue monyflhhed his tenaunt to 3elden to him hys Rente And that CFolio l6a-3
his tenaunt therof toke day of hym . and bi wittneffe of gode men
CAPITULUM xvj°
[OF RELIEF FROM THE CHIEF LORD AFTER THE DEATH OF
THE TENANT.]
Allb purveide hit is that if any man holde lont tent or rente
of other bi a litell seruife of Siluer s9teyn named or bi graunte
after the dethe of the tenaunt Relef theroffen fhall be 3even and
sellynges . if the tenauntf selle the tenement if the chefe lorde
will not haue the a kate And if any tenaunte holde mo tent of
only the chefe lorde he fhall haue but on Relef for all tho
tenementis . But if every tenaunt solde diuerfe sellynges .
CAPITULUiM XVIJ°
[As TO CONTROVERSY BETWEEN NEIGHBOURS.]
Purveid hit is allib that if contraverfy or bebate be twixxe
Neyghbores of wall tymbryng . hegge . goter welle Swelewe or of
other thyngf like . and the fhewying ther of be done in pleyne
courte A warded fhall be that a good man of the Courte and
of that Veyne goyng to the tenement and seen that ilke debate
and that lame Nufaunce and hym that they seyen Thenne for
Right for that on partie or that other w'owten more delay be
it ferme & liable.
CAPITULUM xviij0
[As TO THE SALE OF WOOL, THREAD, HIDES, TALLOW,
HONEY, CHEESE, OR FLESH.]
Allb purveide hit is that if any ftraunge man that ledeth wolle
in to the town of Norhampton may not fellen his wolle deptyn [Folio i6b.}
but all hole to geder And that no ftraunge may byen wolle in
the town of Norhampton but if it be in tyme of the feyre or of
good men of the fame town . And that no ftraunger may byen
threde in Norhampton for to leden hit owte of the toun but in
222 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
tyme of a feire No straunger ne may byen freffh hydes or peltes
in Norhampton but in tyme of ffeyrf . And that no marchaunde of
this Ihire ne non other ftraunger of other Shires that comyth in to
Norhampton with wolle . hides . Talowe . hony . or chefe or fflefihe
ihall no where leyn down but in the Kynges fhoppe . And ther
to be purveid a Comun Shoppe
CAPITULUM xix°
[Or SERVANTS WHO WILFULLY LEAVE THEIR MASTERS.]
Pvrveide hit is allib that if any man haue noryfhed Tapefter
or feraunte . And they of wikked will hem with drawen or voyden
her fervife . And pleynt be made ther of the Bailliff} shullen
Attachen the worde and the ptyes ther as they may be founden
and from houre to houre bi the fpeche folowed tille the Right be
done theroffe
CAPITULUM xx°
[OF MERCHANTS WHO PASS NORTHAMPTON, PAYING CUSTOM.]
Alfo hit is ordeyned that no marchaunde that cuftome fliall
payen may be Ryght paffen the town or Norfit with owten 3en-
dyng of Cuftome . And alllb hit be hoveth that they Gevyn
cultome in the ftedes writen here Aftir That is to leyn oute of
£Foii0 i?a.] Norhampton at Byllyng brygge and at Serefham Croffe and at
Slapton 205 for whi theife Cuftomes harren longyng to the fraunchife
of Norhampton
CAPITULUM xx°
[OF CERTAIN THINGS THAT CANNOT BE TAKEN FOR DISTRESS.]
Ordeyned hit is allfo that no man of Norhampton take in the
fame toun for diftrefle cowe . lyter . Brede ffreffh ffleffh myll horfe
ffreffh hydes nor horfe that ledeth water in the toun that men
callith Buflhes But if hit be for dette of hym that oweth the
thynges be fore named or but if hit be on principall dette for an
other or for the kynges dette
205 Billing Bridge is one of the old bridges over the Nene, about four miles
east of Northampton. Syresham is a village near Brackley ; there are now no
remains of the Market Cross. Slapton is a small village near Towcester.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 223
CAPITULUM xxij°
[OF A MAN'S DISOBEDIENCE TO ATTEND THE MAYOR'S
SUMMONS.]
Allfo hit is proued that if any man be Refonably lyke J
Sommoned to come be fore the maire at his commaundemet by
the Clerke or by the Seriaunt and he with Sitte the somouns
And that he come not be he Amercied at ijs with owten reles
And but if hit be soo that he that is somoned haue for hym a
Refonable excufacion And hit is to vndirltonden that a ryche man
be am9cied at ijs amene man at xijd apore man at vjd . And theife
.am^ciamentis be thei turned into the profite of the Comoun
CAPITULUM xxiij0
[Op Two MEN HOLDING ONE STALL.]
Alib hit is purveide that if two men or thre holden a ftalle in
the town of Norhampton That on of hem lhall be quyte of the [Folio i?b.]
ftallage And the other lhallen payen And that is to vndurftonden
of italics that ben fette in chepyng
CAPITULUM xxmj0
[As TO THE SALE OF HORSES, NEAT KINE, SWINE AND SHEEP.]
Pvrveid hit is allfo that of all maner beftes That is to Seyen
horle Nett kyne swyne shepe and all other beftes that arne
solde in the Chepyng of Norhampton all though that ther ben
atte m9chaundi3e . ij . men or iij or mo to the Bargaynyng nor bye
yet be Geven but be lotte be twyxe the Bargaynours of that
marchaundi3e and throwen vpp whom the loott ffallith to hym
falle the marchaundi3e . And if it fo be wynnyng be 3oven he
that hath hit 3oven And ther of be ouertaken be he in the
mercy of the town of xijd with owten Reles . And this is allfo
well to vndirftonden of Baxlters that byen Corne and hem that
byen pefen And of Bochers and of other that byen suche maner
marchaundife be fore naimed
CAPITULUM xxv°
[As TO THE SALE OF FISH AND SALT.]
Allfo purueid hit is that no ffyflher nor o]>er man that ffifihe
sellith ne bye ffyflhe of no man that ffitihe bryngeth into town
224 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio i8a.] to sellen of Norhampton tille that he that the ffyflhe bryngeth
into town holding his chepyng fully the ffirft day that he cometh
into town Nor no marchaunde of the town not goo owte of the
toun nygh nor ffer by xxiiij11 myles from Norhampton for to
byen ffyffh or salt for to derthen the town . And if any ther
with be outaken be amercied to the toun at ijs . And if he fo
doo thryes and ther of be outaken ffor swere he the Craft a
ye re & a day
CAPITULUM xxvj°
[OF BADGERS, OR VENDORS OF BREAD AND CORN, SELLING
IN ONE PLACE.]
Pvrveide hit is allfo that the Baxfters sitten in a s^teyn stede
to gedyr and on on Rewe and allfo do they of Eckton 206 and alle
other ftraunge Baxfters And all the Regrateres of brede and of
Corn done they allfo And that thei leyen in howfe no . brede .
Corne nor malte for to derthe the chepyng nor the toun All
fough they may not sellen at her wille to the harme of the
toun And of men of the contre that byen her brede and hir
corne And thoo that fuche thyngis hauen Refleyted and of theym
that ben outaken be they am9cied to the toun of xijd with oute
relefe if thei many tymes be outaken ther of be ]>ey more
greuoufly amercied
CAPITULUM xxvij0
[OF VENDORS OF HAY AND STRAW.]
[Folio i8b.] Allfo hit is purveide that no man that bereth burthens of hey
or of It raws pefe ftrawe or bene lira we into towne ne come hit
noust don on the erthe from his hedde tyll they haue sold hit And
if thei done lefe they the burthene &c
CAPITULUM xxvuj0
[OF VENDORS OF TIMBER.]
Pvrveide hit is allfo that no man that bryngeth in to the
toun tymber wode ftokkes grete tymber or affhe ne come hit
not down to the kynges grounde . ffor to latten hit lyen ther
206 Ecton is a small village lying about five miles north-east of Northampton.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 225
tille haue solde hit All though he may not selle hit . And who
so dothe hit lefe he the tymber . wode or ftokke to the profite
of the Bailiffs
CAPITULUM xxix°
[OF THOSE THAT BUY HlDES ANYWHERE BUT IN THE MARKET.]
Allfo purueide hit is that no man of Norhampton Marchaunde
ne other goo owte of the town of Norhampton . at non of the
3ates ny}e or ferre writh Jnne the ffraunchile for to meten the
men of the Countre That bryngen ffelles or wolle to sellen ffor
to byen ffelles or wolle of hem in none other stede But in the
kynges merkett of Norhampton ther too sertenly affigned . And
And who ther of be outaken that he goo with owte the }ates
or in howfe or in hydirmuke for felles or wolle elles where to
byen But in the kynges Chepyng Os hit is seide be he in the
mercy to the town of ijs with owte reles &c
CAPITULUM xxx°
[OF THOSE THAT BUY FOOD ANYWHERE BUT IN THE
MARKET, ALSO OF REGRATERS.]
Pvruede Hit is allfo that no Huxfter . Man nor Woman of [Folio
Norhampton ne gon owte of the touii at non of the 3ates ne
in no ilrete ne in howfe ne in other hydynges But in the kynges
Chepyng ther to Affigned for to byen no man^e of vitaile That
is for to feyne ffyffhe nor hennes nor kokkes nor chefe Eyren
nor none other vitaile nor wode nor Cole for to derthen the
vitaile . And no man ne bye suche thyng . be forn the prime be
Rungen at all Holowen Chirche . And that the Regraters byen
alway tho forfeide thyngf in a s^teyne ftede of Chepyng ther to
affigned . And who so be founde that dothe agayne this pur-
viaunce lefe he the Catell that in that man9e hem hath bought
And 3ite neuthelefe he ihall ben am9cyed at vjd to the Bayllyffes .
And if any Regrater man or woman any of the thynges be
fore named be fore the houre of pryme hadde bought . And
seyen that the thingf they haue bought to the profite of Sum
burges of the toun Afferme thei thanne or sweren on the haly-
dome that the thynges to the pfyte of the burges bo^ten .
And if they thanne by the Burges ben a warded be they quyte .
And if thei ther of be outaken And by the burgeys difavoved be
Q
226 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
they thanne firft am9cyed at vjd and aftir at xijd . and if they
thrife of that fravde ben outaken for fwere they the crafte a
3ere and a daye
CAPITULUM xxxj°
[Folio xgb.] XXXJ°
[OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF AGENTS FOR THE PURCHASE
OF GOODS.]
Allfo hit is pvruied that no Man nor Woman that ben of
the ffraunchife of Norhamptori ne enplede othir that ben of the
same fraunchife owte of Nohampron bi no man9e purchas Tille
he that wille pleynen hym have the Right aftir the viages of
the Toun and the Courte of Norhampton may hauen And aiiy
dothe the contrary and ther of ben outaken Be he greuouily
Am9cied.And if it fo be that he that pleyneth havith Right
aftir the vfages of the toun in the Courte of Norhampton nor
then may not haue hit . Seke thanne his purchas ther as he wenyth
moft soneft Remedie to haue . And w*outen chalenge of hem of
the Courte Aftirwarde
CAPITULUM xxxij0
[Or CHILDREN OF MEN THAT ARE PUT IN PRISON.]
Purueide hit is allfo that the Children of good men of Norfct
that lhall be put in dufayne lhallen 3even ot> and the ftraunge
fhall geven to the Baillifs iiijd and to the clerke . jd and well
they hem kepen the Baillifs vp grevous am9cyment . And that
thei ne enteren no ftraunge man in Rolle of dufeyn but thei
haue otfee And sikerneffe of hym of trewth and that he be of
ffree condicion And that he be Rented to the chefe Dufeyner
CAPITULUM xxxnj0
[OF BUTCHERS HAVING WEIGHTS.]
Allfo purveide hit is that no Bocher nor non other haue tronage
but onlve the Bailiff} and that the troner Haue a balaunce hit to
|_rolio aoa.J J
weyen and the baillyff} of the thyngf troned . ijd . And if any man
selle by a fton or ellis of the tronage Aftir the quatite of the
weyght . and if any man haue with holden is tronage and ther
of ben oStaken . 3eue to the bailliffs . vjd for his confeylyng
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 22y
CAPITULUM xxxmj0
[OF THE TAKING OF HIDES OUT OF THE TOWN.]
Purveid hit is allfo that no bocher nor other ne lede ffreffh
hides oute of Nornt to no Chepyng to fellen But if it be to ffeires
And if any ther of be outaken That hit doth he be in the
m9cy of the Baillifs of ijs
CAPITULUM xxxv°
[OF KEEPING WATCH IN THE TOWN.]
Allfo purveide it is that if any man be sommoned to waken in
the town that nede ben he mall sende no man to take wache
for hym But yf he be manne conuenable and defenfable And that
wacche be made from houfe to houfe so os it cometh a bou}te
And that none be Relefed nor for born but if it be a warkeman
that lyveth vppon his owne hondes . And }it not but if ther be
s9iaunt that he be sommoned by witteneiTe and he ne come not
be he in the mercy of the Baillyi^ of . vjd
CAPITULUM xxxvj0
[OF HIRING SHOPS AT FAIRS.]
Purveide hit is allfo that no man of Norhampton goo to no
feire be forne othir for to hyren moppes for derthyng the moppes
when they comen . And who fo dothe the contrary and ther of
be outaken mall ben in the mercy of the toun of halfe a marke [Folio
And 3 it neutheless mall make grement to hym that hath the
harme by way of his gooyng
CAPITULUM xxxvij0
[CONCERNING LOANS.]
Allfo prouyded it is that no marchaunde of Norhamptoii here
by forwarde make lone to no kny}te ne to non other but if so
be that he that wolde the thyng borowen be in dette to non
other of the toun And in this manure That he to whom he
owe)?e the dette come to hym that wrolde the thyng borowen
is in his dette And if any hit doo be in the mercy at . xls . too
the town and in this man9e That he that the dette his owed
too may averreyn bi wittnefle that he hath his neyghbur in this
maner warned
Q 2
228 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
CAPITULUM xxxvnj0
[OF THE HIRING OF SERVANTS.]
Pvrueid hit is alfo that no man of NorRt not Receyve any
others mannys feruaunt into his f9uice nor with hym make
comenaunt for to dwelle but if it so be that he witte howe and
in what man9e he be deperted from his maift9 that he served
and that he be departed in good maner And if any do y cotary
& therof be outaken be he in the mercy of the bayllyff} of ijs
CAPITULUM xxxix0
[OF PERSONS MAKING COVENANTS.]
Alfo it is purveide and defendid that no coueyne her by
forwarde ne be made wher thorough the Comun and the baillif-
[Foiio aia.] ±hep le±en hir Ryght And if any ther of be outaken be he in the
mercy to the toun And to the baillyfs of xls
CAPITULUM XL°
[CONCERNING REGRATERS.]
Pvrueide hit is allfo that no Regrater of threde no day be
fore the houre of p'me And that he ne bye nou}t no daye but
only by the pounde at the mofte And that they that byen that
that threde that they done hit to worken and sen that the threde
be gode and counenable And tho that byen threde for to sellefi
that they hit sellen no where but in Chepyng . That in houies
nor in fhoppes And if any of that be outaken that other dothe
be in the m9cy of the Baillifs of vjd And if any Regrater byen
other wife but the pounde of threde any daye before the houre
of prime and ther of be outaken fefe he the Catell . And if any
byer be hit man or be hit woman That ledith the seller to his
houfe and him makyth not his full payment for the threde that
hath bought and that anon and the pleynt be made to the
baillifs The baillii3 anon pay to the seller vp to the byers
purs fulliche his payment And then Rere the bailliff} the thyngf
of the Catell of the byer and the byer be in the mercye of
the Bailliff3 of xijd .
CAPITULUM XLJ°
[OF PURCHASING GOODS.]
Allfo hit is purueide that if any man or woman ley his peny
[Folio 2ib.] vppon any marchandy3e tille that the Seller hym hath Graunted
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 22Q
the Marchaundife lefeth a peny to the profite of the Baillif5 And
gode leue be to the other That wolle that marchaundize Aftir
byen . And if any marchaund bye be laffe money than by a
ferthyng hole . But yf it be peltis to pchemyn be in ]>e m9cy to
fe baillifs of vj
CAPITULUM XLIJ°
[OF PLEADING IN COURT.]
Purueide hit is alfo that here by forthwarde ne by myfkennyng
in the Courte pledyng but euery Ryche and pore tell his grete
sotheneffe with owten vnderuemyng
CAPITULUM XLIIJ°
[CONCERNING WORKERS IN CLOTH.]
Allfo hit is awarded that no maker of cloth ne put in his
cloth thing that is called impiall tyngtur or worme ne of white
Rayes dy}ynge of barke ne non other fallfe dy3e And if any ther
of be outaken lefe he the clothe or be in the mercy of the toun
of j marke And that no cloth ne threde be dy}ed of erthe but
onlyche the threde that he putteth in the clothe impiall And if
any other clothe be founden dy}ed of erthe and that clothe be
the deiiters and hit be by the counceill And the affente of him
that hit owith Be allfo that clothe lofte to the town And if it
be not the wille ne of the fente of hym that the clothe owith
The deiiler for fwere he the Crafte A yere and a day And that
no deiiter maiftre no clothe wl hym And if anny ther of be
outaken fore fwere he the Crafte A yere and a daye and no [Folio 32a.]
man make clothe but if the clothe be of Refonable feute that is
for to feyne that the pure elne ne faile laffe than a peny at
the mofle Than the befte elne and in the very impiall . I ofc
and if any ther of be outaken be he am^cyed to the [town] of
vs . and if he be thryes outaken forfwere he the Crafte A 3ere
and a day
CAPITULUM XLIIIJ°
[CONCERNING NUISANCES.]
Purveide hit is allfo that no deifter nor bocher nor other man
ne woman not cafte out at his dore into the kynges wey Grutte
or dy}ing of wod ne carione nor non other man9e stynkkyng
thyng ne boyltur of wode and if any hit do be in the m9cye
to the Bailliffs of xijd
230 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
CAPITULUM XLV°
[CONCERNING BUTCHERS.]
Allfo hit is purueide that no bocher from henfe forwarde not
haunte the office of the bocherye as a maifter tille he have
3euen to the toun iij» viij'1 os they in olde tyme were wonte to
3euen . And who the lalfe dothe to the toun his Right thanne the
marchaundi3e longeth . for the fraunchife of the toune to hauen
after comune Right of the town
CAPITULUM XLVJ°
[ALSO CONCERNING BUTCHERS.]
Purueid hit is alfo that no bocher ne byen no porke but if he
haue warantife of ]>e seller of clennes of porke An if he ne doo
nott falle the harme vppon the bocher with owten anny Recouer-
yng of the seller
CAPITULUM XLVIJ°
[Or BUTCHERS SELLING UNWHOLESOME MEAT.]
Allfo hit is purueide that no bocher nor other sellen SulTemy
[Folio 22b.] fleflh freifli ne fleflh of a dede gote ne calidiouns of a Ihepe nor
Nete nor hedys of Caluereii nor of Nete nor fuche man9e of
fowle thyngf But vnder the pillorie and if the thyngf ben J
founden in other ftedis for to sellen Be thei lofte to the bailliffj
profite and the sufmy be 3even to feke men of Seynt Leonardis207
CAPITULUM XLVIIJ°
[Op VENDORS OF WOOD.]
Purueide it is allb that euy ftraunge woders 3eue of euy
quarter of wode that he felith vjd . to the toun . And if the ooft
of the woder herburgh the woder . with owten leve of the bailliffs
And that woder that felith ne paye that hym oweth to paye of right
And if the ofte late hym patfe with owten paying The hofte
fliall paye the vjd and fhall ben Amercyed
CAPITULUM XLIX°
[CONCERNING CHAPMEN.]
Allfo it is purueide that euy Chapman or marchaund of the
town of Norhampton that marchaundeth with the penyes of
itraunge men 3eue at euy hundred of ffelles that he byeth . iiijd „
207 Saint Leonard's Hospital for lepers, situate near the south bridge, at Northampton.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 231
And of euy sake of wolle . vjd . to the pfyte of the town and to
the Bailliffs cuftome for a ftraunge man And that that ffalleth
to the tronage
CAPITULUM L° [FOHO
[TAX ON BUYING LAND.]
Pvrueide hit is Alib that all tho that byen londe tenemetf or
Rentis in Norhamptori Ihulle 3euen at euy xxs that the payment .
ijd . to the profyte of the touri
CAPITULUM LJ°
[CONCERNING DYERS.]
Alllb hit is ordeyned and purueid that if any deyfter dy}e
the clothe of any man wikkedeliche and therof be ouertaken lefe
his travell And be in the m9cye of the Baillifes of xijd for the
treipace &c
CAPITULUM LIJ°
[CONCERNING CLOTH WORKERS.]
Awarded it is allfo that werkers of clothes that Arnn clepid
webfters here biforewarde ne ftente not vppon hir huftis to
wewen her clothes owen nor other And if any and therof be
taken . ffirite he 3eue to the toun ijs And if he be another tyme
outake . he fhall 3eue to the toun halfe j marke . And if he
another tyme be outaken lefe he the clothe to the profit of the
toun And that euy wyte clothe by here byforward of . xxxiij por-
ters And the clothe impiall of xxvj . and of xxvij and the white Ray
be hit of the fame lenght . And if any man will marchaundi}en
of penyes of the fame lumbard or of peyns of ftraunge men .
ffyrite it was ordeyned that he fhulde }euen of euy cloth to
the toun.vjd And aftir it was ordeyned . ijd and of owene clothus
to the toun of euy colour atte clothe a peynye . And who it hal]?e
or confeylej)le 3eue to )>e toun ijs with Reles
CAPITULUM LIIJ°
[CONCERNING VENDORS OF WOOD.]
Awarded it is alfo that no woder that bryngeth wode in to
Norhampton ne make no gpneryng therof But if it be in pfaunce
of fowre gode men and tho Sworen ther too ne no gaderyng leide
232 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
to ne put to that wode but in the pfent of tho foure Sworn
And that no woder not sellen of his wode tille the saye therof
beforne be made by thre affigned therto and Sworn and no woder
ne fhall his wode fellen to no Itraunge man And if any ftraunge
man thereof be ouer taken lefe he the marchaundi3e . And if the
woder ther of be outaken be in the nrcye to the toun of . xl8 . And
that no woder sellen his wode but by allay d that with Jnne the
. xxx . dayes that he ihall come and af? voyde the toun and if he
wille his wode sellen all holl to men of the town goode leue be hit
and if any Itraunge woders make garner with ftede abowte enuiron
in the byenge of xxiiij myle abowte Norhampton . for to fle the
affaye And no man of the toun ne wend owte of the toun to
marchaunden And if any deifter or aflayour be 3ifte or by hefte
or by other queyntife make ther wode of gretter price than hit is
worthi and therof ben outaken for he fwere he crafte a yere and
adaye
CAPITULUM LIIIJ°
[CONCERNING DISTRESS MADE BY ONE POSSESSING ONLY
A LIMITED ESTATE IN LAND.]
Awarded it is alfo that if any man be feffed of londs tenement
[Folio 24a.] or Rente and he tho thynges to hym feffed wolde waften or
diitryuen and the chefe Lorde of whom he holdith offe therof be
apceyned and cometh to the bailliffs and make to hym the fhewyng
that his tenaunt wyll diftruen and wasten his tenement in lefyng
of his rente . The Bailliffs a non right shull gon to the tenement
and so thei fynden be it tymber or other thynges tymberd they
fhull done attachen and if owte be by hynden to the chefe lorde
of the fee of his Annuell Rente or of other f^uyces to hym Skyl-
fully owed and bi wittnetfe pued than fhullen the Bailliffs
delyueren the attachment founden in that ffee to the cheffe lorde
in name of diftreife and if any man haue ouzte bouzte of the
tenement or owte boron awey the bailliffs shullen don it attachen
in whos hande the thyngf may be founde tille the nexte plees And
than bi trewe Juggement mail be iugged and awarded if that
thyng that is in that man9e bou3te or born a wey fhall dwellen to
hym that so hath bouste hit or hit born awey or if the thyng
mail be to hym lorii And if the sale be right be forn don be
than allib the seller as the byer grenoflyche Am9cied And if the
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 233
tenatmte make grement to the lorde of the Arrurages and hym
fynde sufficiaunt sikernetfe to tymbren it vp agayne and to make
him his tenement ageyn for to faue his rente by thanne that ilke
attachment bi that sikerneire to the tenement delyued
CAPITULUM LV°
[Or A MAN WHO HOLDS OF HIS LORD BY SERVICE, AND is
DISTURBED BY THE HIGHER CHIEF LORD.]
Awarded Hit is alib that if any man holde tenement or ten [Folio 24b<]
of his chefe lorde by a due seruyce and bi a seruyce named
and that ilke teneaunt his due s^uyfe to his Chefe lorde hath paid
and other more eyr that tenement haue diitreyned and seruyfe
haue afked ther of And the tenaunte by deftreffe to the plees hath
comen and shewed that he his s9uyce haue 3elden to his chefe
lord that mene is bi twyxen hem and the mor eyr chefe lorde
diftreynyng and that ilke mene ne haue not hym ther of quyte
and afketh ther of a warde and the Courte thanne bi counfell of
tne Courte fhall ben awarded that the tenaunt wende to the chefe
lorde mene and he his due hath 3elde and taken with hym good
men and trewe and him jpie comaundyng that he hym . a quyte
a geyns the ey chefe lorde that him hath diitreyned and greued
by his defaute And if he that ilke mene ne him aquyte nou3t as
is be forn feide gode men bi suche he hath don that comaundyng
and if the thyng be wittneiTe seid bi tho gode men that he hath
so don as it is seide thanne be afkyng helpe of the Courte that
fliall hym ben warded that he fhall purfue his fee ageyns the
soueyn chefe lorde that hym hath diftreyned and that not paied
to his chefe lorde mene till that ilke chefe lorde mene oute of the
harme of that other haue delyued and fully aquyted
CAPITULUM LVJ°
[CONCERNING DEBTORS AND CREDITORS.]
Purveide it is allb that if any man of NorRt his godis and his
Catellis to any man of the Courte knyght or pfon or other till a
~ J -7& [Foho 2$a.]
s teyne day or tyme haue lent or borowed and the dettur the
grement to his creaunib1' at the s9tayne daie sette ne to forne ne
haue not made & aftir the t9me cometh into the toun of Norhamp-
ton with hors or with other Catell and the creaunfour cometh to
the bailliffs and maketh a pleynt of his dettr that wrongfulliche
234 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
he with holdeth hym his dette gode leve be to the bailliffs and
horfe & the Catelles of the dettr founden in the power of his
ofte ther as he was herborowed defenden and if the hofte the
horie ne the catell of the dettr ne will not vndertakyn for to lave
Thanne the bailliffs lhall of hf his power the katells with hym
lede and do hem saueliche kepen till hit so be that be don to
the parties And if the Ofte or Oftaffe or hir s9teyne Atturney will
vndir taken and with holden and to saven the Catelles of the
dettour and the Cattelles beyng in her warde and the dettr ther
aftir warde him depart owte of the touri with owte lefe of the
bailliffs and with owte makyng greemet to the Creaunfour of the
dette The Ofte or the Oftaffe hem they 3eldon fulliche to make
the paiement of the dette to the Creaunsor Aftir that the Creaunsor
Refonablych iliewen and pven may whiche done he lhall And if
a knyght palfe bi the toun of Nornt and owe dette to any man of
the toun and no dwellyng maketh in the town gode leve be hit
to the Bailliffs bi the swte of the Creaunfor and by his pleynte
the harneys of the knyght to Attached ahd hit with holden
till Right be don to the pties but his Palfrey that he Rydith on
he may not attachen . And if the Bailliffs tachen the Catelles of
[Folio a$b.] any man for dette that he oweth and aftir that he hath him
Attached lat the attachment and the dettr departe with owten
gre doyng or paying to the crea.unfou1 And that by 3yfte that the
bailife hath taken of the dettr. And that this thyng be outaken
the Bailliffs be holden hollyche to make the paying and the greyng
to the creaunfour for the fravde that he hath don and that with
owte del aye
CAPITULUM LVIJ°
[CONCERNING THE OUSTING OF A MAN FROM HIS FREEHOLD
BY INTRUSION OR ABATEMENT.]
Alfo it is purveide that no man entre in to any tenement be
intirifion or bi abatement an hu and crie therof come to the
bailliffs the bailif with oute more delay shall go to the tenement
and don of the ftrenygfe and take the tenement in to the kynges-
hond till the next plees with hyr tytulys of Ryght if thei haue
titules . And thanne in pleyri plees lhall ben alked bi the Courte
to the pties that thei Ihewen what thei hauen of Ryght for hym ..
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 235
And he that mofte fufficient titule haue for hym lhall be putte
in his Seefyng . And if that other partie will purfewe Aftir he
hym prchas ]>e beste wyfe he cane
CAPITULUM LVIIJ°
[As TO A MAN WHO is BORN IN THE TOWN ENTERING HIS NAME
ON THE TOWN REGISTER AND PAYING HIS FEES.]
Syn hit contened is in vfages of the touii of Nortit of Olde
tyme vied that all the Children of burgeis of the lame toun
iholde payen to the vie of the fame Toun for to Rejoife the
ffrauncheife . vs . iiijd . And in a batyng of the forfeid payment . John
Longwile Meire of Norftt m by the affent of Phelipp Euard [Folio a6a.j
William Bifte Gefferey Herleston Coroners of the fame Towne
Adam Cotelbrooke William Elys Thomas Staunford Wouter of
Pattefliull William Euard Adamffy5t Adam Earlemonger Henry
Roger John of Stratton Waut9 Cay Gylbert baker & William
Sotell to gedur with all the comunalte of the forfeide town
Arri atrentid in the chyrche of Seynte Gyle of Norfct the
Sonenday next Affore the fefte of Seint Denys . [yth October, 1341]
Jn the yere of the Reigne of King Edward the thyrde aftir the
conqueft the xv . yere . That euy maner man that is borne in the
foreleyde town And his fadir hath ben At lotte and Scotte and
in comu charge of the forfeide town . Allfo fone os that he wille
marchaundi3en come before the meire and Coroners in the pleyn
plees of the forfeide town and make his othe in this maner
that he 'flialbe feithfull and lawfull to oure lorde the Kyng
and to his heyres & Juftifiable to meyre and Bailliff} and the
ffredomes and the vfages of the forfeide town to his power
mayntene . as moite playnly hit shalbe fchewed hym at the
making of his othe And that he paye the fees to the Clerke
and Seriaunte of olde lyme vfed that is to witte . iiijd to the
Clerke and . ijd to the S9geaunte and be his name entered in the
Regeftre withowten other grement makyng to the meyre or to
the town from hennes forwarde And alfo that yif any of the [Folio a6b.]
condycion befornfeide or any other marchaundi3en beforne that
NOT*.
he make his othe befornefeide lefe he the marchaundi} to the
108 John Longvile was mayor of the town, prior to 1377, at which time the
present list in the Town Hall commences.
236 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pfite of the town And alfo the meyre and comynalte ben Aflented
That if any man of the flraunchife of the forfeide town Enplede
anothyr in the Courte of Norhampton be the defendaunt of the
ffraunchife or non in plee of dette of xijd or of leffe that he
that is empleded may done his lawe be his owne honde . So
that he that fhall done his lawe bee of good fame And allfo
the same vfage} be holden in plee of difpfonement so that the
pleyntif be of the ffraunchife be the defendant Den3eyn or
foreyne . And allfo the forfeide meire & comunalte ben Aflentid
that in plee of dette or of trefpas that towcheth difpfonement
that the pleyntyff Aftyr the lawe waged haue but oon effoyne .
And in affermyng of theife poyntes Aboue feide . The comoun
feall of the town of NorRt is putte for to laften att all dayes
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
237
ORDINACO FACT9 TEMPE
WlLLI RUSSHEDEN209
SEN DE CARPENTAR
CAPITULUM LIX°
f A ~j D p fectum acetiam &
Lr^J opportunitatem Carpen-
tario^ infra villam NorRt viitat9
& deinceps excercend p volun-
tatem & cdem Aflenfum dee
Artis artiffcm infra villam pdict9
comoraur ailiduo & eo£ j}catu
Jta ordinal9 eft p dilcreiTionem
maioris & confilij sui modo
quo fubfequit1' . Jn p'mis qd int9
Artifices pdcos conftituanf duo
fupvilbres dee Artis de dif-
cretiorib} viris & magis idoneis
ad lupefiend & supvidend . certos
vlus & confuetudines dee Artis
similt9 & in defectib) in Arte
pdict9 inueftigand & in eifdem
corrigend seu maiori & luo cons
fidelit9 intimand Icdm dee Artis
affiduam facultatem p fcrutari
dci fupuiibres fidelit9 non defiftat .
Similiter vf pdci lupuifores &
eo<^ succeflbres comparereftudeant
semel in Anno ad tempus cdfuetu
int9 eofdem
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME
OF WILLIAM RUSSHEDEN SENR
CONCERNING CARPENTERS
CHAPTER LIX
For the progress as well as [Folio 273.3
for the convenience of the regular
carpenters within the town of
Northampton and of those here-
after to be employed by the
wish and common assent of the
craftsmen of the said craft
constantly dwelling within the
aforesaid town and at their pe-
tition It is thus ordained by
the discretion of the mayor and
his council in manner following
First that among the aforesaid
craftsmen there be appointed
two supervisors of the said
craft of the more discreet men
and more fit for the superin-
tending and supervising the fixed
usages and customs of the said
craft and likewise for the in-
vestigating the shortcomings in
the aforesaid craft and in making
correction in the same or for
giving faithful intimation to the
mayor and his council and the
said supervisors fail not to
make diligent enquiry as to
the continual practice of the
said craft Likewise that the
said supervisors and their suc-
cessors be zealous to appear
once in the year at the cus-
tomary time appointed among
209 WiHiam Rushden was mayor of the town in 1430-1 ; and William Russhedin
in 1439-40.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio
hit9 vt fcilt citra feftum Corporis
Xpi in Gilda Aula ville Nor-
hampton coram maiore & fuo
cons p tempe exiftentib} tune
Ad onus rbm sup omnes Car-
pentarios infra Irbtatem ville
Norhampton comorant9 fide me-
dia210 iure Rite sufcipiendf &
fidelit9 vfq} ad Anni illius plen-
ariam reuolucoem parit9obferuan-
dam . Complete v9ro illo Anno
ac p eofdem lupviibres omnib}
& lingutexofficd content9 formalit9
pactis p coem affentum elig9e
debent de Artificib} jldcis & alios
duos dee Artis viros simili
modo & tempe int9 eofdem
confuet9 Ad difponendf in arte
]3dca p coi vtilitate verefimilit9 .
P9tea & ordinat9 eft in9t ipos
Artifices qd fupuifores sic int ipos
conftituti Recipiant de iingutis
dee Artis magiftris infra Irbtatem
ville Norhampton opantf semei
in Anno quatuor denar ad tor-
tas311 & cet9a luminaria inter
eofdm temporib} & locis aflignat9
exhibend Similit9 & ordinat9 eft
qd quicumq)
them that is to say within the
feast of Corpus Christi [the
Thursday after Trinity Sunday]
in the guildhall of the town of
Northampton before the mayor
and his council for the time
being to undertake the business
there for all the carpenters
dwelling within the liberty of
the town of Northampton fairly
lawfully rightly and faithfully
to observe it in like manner
till the full revolution of that
year But when that year is
completed and when by the
same supervisors all and singular
the things that were to be at-
tended to in respect of their office
have been duly performed they
ought by common consent to
choose from the aforesaid crafts-
men two other men of the
said craft in the same way and
at the time usual among them to
manage in the aforesaid craft
for the common advantage in the
best way Moreover it is ordained
among the craftsmen themselves
that the supervisors so appointed
among them shall receive from
each of the masters of the said
craft working within the liberty
of the town of Norhampton once
in the year 4d for torches (?) and
the rest of the lights to be shown
among the same at times and
places assigned Likewise also it
is ordained that every carpenter
210 Media, probably meaning fairness between the parties.
211 Tortas, probably a barbarous word for " torches."
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
239
carpentari9 primo ville Norhamp-
tori adueniens opandi gra in Arte
p diem aut p groff9 qd ipe finem
facial artificib} eiufdem artis
ville NorRt . xij . denar & Maiori
ifom & Alios . xij denar ad vfum
ville Jdce soluendf si Jdcus car-
pentarius it>m moram faciat
vltra quatuor Septimanas Solum-
odo ad laborandf . Simili? si ipe
carpentarius sit magifi9 nucu-
patus & in villa Nornt diutius
qam p vnu Annu iftm moram
faciat ad opandf qd jldcus ille
Carpentarius sit in Irbtatem ville
Norhampton AdmuT9 icdm vius
& confuetudines ville pdce sub
pena xld . Maiori ad opus villate
$dce soluendf & cotidiem denar
fupuiibrib} dee Artis reddendf
Ad luminar jldcta fideli? exhib-
endf . Jtm qd quiiit carpentarius
p diem opans in Arte sua dum-
odo non fuilFet pdcus Artifex
Apprenticius infra villam jldcain
aut nil! fui? subtuitoe Alicuius
magr dee Artis ville Jdce soluer
debet maiori . xijd . ut fupra et
fupviibrib} ejufdem Artis , xijd .
Jtm qd nullus Artifex dee Artis
ad lifctatem ville Norht Admilf9
first coming to the town of
Northampton for the purpose of
working in the craft by the day
or by the piece shall pay a fine
to the craftsmen of the same
art of the town of Northampton
of i2d and to the mayor there
other i2d to be paid to the use
of the town aforesaid if the
aforesaid carpenter stay in the
same place beyond four weeks
only to work Likewise if the
carpenter himself be one styled
a master and if he stay there
in the town of Northampton
longer than one year to work
that the said carpenter shall be
admitted to the liberty of the
town of Northampton according
to the usages and customs of the
town aforesaid under a penalty of
40 pence to be paid to the mayor
for the work of the township
aforesaid and of paying a penny
a day to the supervisors of the
said craft for the faithful showing
forth of the aforesaid lights Also
that every carpenter working by
the day in his craft provided that
the aforesaid craftsman be not EFolio
an apprentice within the town
aforesaid nor under the instruction
of some master of the said craft
of the town aforesaid ought to
pay to the mayor I2d as above
and to the supervisors of the said
craft i2d Also that no craftsman
of the said craft admitted to the
liberty of the town of North-
240
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Aliquem alium virum dee Artis
Admiffum extra Cur ville Norfct
impletatet nifi p'us act5nem suam
in Cur ibidem . attemptauri? sub
pena xld maiori et xld. supuiforib}
artis jldce soluendi . Jtem et qui-
cunq} dee artis infra Irbtatem ville
NorRt qui ad sumonitoem debitam
jldco^ fupuifo^ seu n5ie eo£ jlconis
coit9 Affignat9 ad certos diem diem
& locum ppter comune vtilitatem
dee artis it»m ptractandf obedire
contempferit incurrer debet pe-
nam solutois unius libre cere
dcis supuiforib} soluend nifi ex-
cufaco competens po?it eundem
excufare . Si quis Autem dee
Artis magif? infra villam Norfet
qui huic ordinatoi contrauenir
jllumpferit simil? incurrer debet
solutoem xld Arti fldce & xld
maiori si ille couictus inde fuit9
coram maiore & suo conlilio .
Jtem qd nullus gardianus feu
dee artis fupuiforaliquem p'uatum
finem inter partes Artis fldce
faciat neq3 aliqua Affr concelet
A Maior vel baft ville pdce in
piudicm officij maioratus
ampton implead any other man
of the said craft admitted with-
out the court of the town of
Northampton unless he shall first
have tried his action in the court
there under penalty of paying
40d to the mayor and 4od to the
supervisors of the art aforesaid
Also whosoever of the said craft
within the liberty of the town
of Northampton shall have re-
fused to obey the due summons
of the aforesaid supervisors or
of the crier commonly appointed
in their name at fixed day and
place on business connected
with the common advantage of
the said craft ought to incur
the penalty of paying one pound
of wax to be paid to the said
supervisors unless a competent
excuse shall be able to excuse
him But if any master of the
said craft within the town of
Northampton shall have pre-
sumed to contravene this ordi-
nance he ought similarly to
incur the payment of 4od to the
aforesaid craft and 4od to the
mayor if he shall be convicted
of it before the mayor and his
council Also that no warden or
supervisor of the said craft shall
make any private fine between
the parties of the craft aforesaid
nor shall conceal any
from the mayor or bailiffs of
the town aforesaid to the preju-
dice of the office of the mayor
or bailiffs under a penalty of
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
241
vel baftivo^ sub pena . xs villat9
Nornt soluendf tociens quociens
inde fuit? pdcus fupuifor seu
gardianus coram maiore & fuo
c5filio couictus modo confilij Et
qd nullus Magifter dee Artis
Aliquem virum in opam fuam
recipiat nifi ipm nouit bene
conufatonis & gesture vt p ipo
refpondere penes Ecciie Dei
sacre culturam valeat & terre
Regalia inftituta &c
ios to be paid to the township (?)
of Northampton as often as the
aforesaid supervisor or warden
shall be convicted of it in the
same manner before the mayor
and his council And that no
master of the said craft shall
receive any man to help him
unless he shall know him to be
of good conversation and conduct
and can answer for him as to his
respect for the Holy Church of CFoli
God and the royal institutions of
the land &c
ORDINANCE MADE CONCERNING
ESSOINERS IN THE TIME OF
JOHN WELLis213 MAYOR
CHAPTER LX &c
At a meeting held in the
church of S* Giles on the Sunday
[4th September 1412] next after
the feast of S* Giles in the i3th
year of the reign of Henry the
Fourth after the Conquest by the
assent of the mayor the 24
burgesses and the whole com-
munity there assembled it was
agreed and firmly established that
anyone impleaded in the court of
the town of Northampton by any
plea shall find lawful sureties
according to the laws and custom
of the realm of England as well
as according to the usual custom
of the said town from the time
beyond which the memory of
man does not reach and shall be
112 Essonii, probably a Latinised form of " Essoiners " ; or persons who excused
themselves from attending on summons.
213 John Wellis or Wellyes was mayor of the town in 1411-2.
R
ORDINACO FACT DE Esson 212
TEMPE JOHIS WELLIS MAJORIS
CAPITULUM LX™ &c
|~ A ~| D congregatoem nit9 in
L/^J Eccha sci Egidij die
dominica px poft feftum sci
Egidij Anno regni Regis Henrici
quarti poft conqm tertiodecimo
ex . Aflenfu Maioris xxiiijor bur-
genf9 & totius coitatis ifcm con-
gregatis concordatum eft & p
firmoftabilituquodquiiit imptatus
in Cur ville Nornt p Aliquod
piitum & inuen^it huiufmodi pleg
legitime scdm legem & confuet-
udinem regni Angl necnon scdm
confuetudinem dee ville A tempe
quo memoria hoifn non exiftit
vfitat9
242
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio aga.]
pot9it ter p quemcumq5 officiarm
videlit Serieaunte3 baftio^ seu
quecumq} Aim legm dm Regis
effon & huiufmodi effon licite
congaudere Abfq3 impedimento
Aliquali
DE CUSTOD TERRE & HERED
TEMPE JOHIS GREGORY MAIORIS
ANNO PRIMO HENRICI QUINTI
[A]D
CAPITULUM LXI™
hufteng tent9 rbm die
lune px poft feftum sci
Petri Aduincia Anno regni Regis
Henrici quinti poft coriqm Scdo
Jones Gregory Maior ville NorM
ex Aflenfu xxiiijor comburg
eiufdem ville de coniilio suo iurat9
AfTignauitThome Hunt dehaumam
& Agnet vxi sue cuftodiam Jonis
Buckyngham fit & heredis Johis
Buckyngh"m filij quondm Magri
Henrici Buckyngham de Norfiton
in cuftodia dci maioris ut de iure
villate ad tune exiftentis ad eum
bn & honefte gufcnandum quoufq3
ad suam plenarium puenit9 etatem
.Ac omia eidem JoRi Buckyngham
neceffar medio tempe put ftatu luo
conuen9it diligent9 puidendf nec-
non de receptionib3 exitum t9ra^
able three times by some one
of the officials viz Serjeants of
the bailiffs or some other of the
lieges of our lord the King to
be essoined and to enjoy essoin
of this kind without hindrance
of any sort
CONCERNING THE CUSTODY OF
LAND AND AN HEIR IN THE TIME
OF JOHN GREGORY214 MAYOR IN
THE FIRST YEAR OF HENRY V
CHAPTER LXI
At a court of hustings held
there on the Monday [6th August,
1414] next after the feast of S*
Peter ad Vincula in the second
year of the reign of King Henry
the fifth after the Conquest John
Gregory Mayor of the town of
Northampton by the assent of 24
burgesses of the same town
sworn of his council assigned to
Thomas Hunt of Haversham and
Agnes his wife the custody of
John Buckyngham son and heir
of John Buckyngham late son
of Master Henry Buckyngham
of Northampton in the custody
of the said mayor or by right
of the township (?) existing for
this purpose to govern him well
and honestly until he shall arrive
at his full age And all things
necessary to the same John
Buckyngham in the meanwhile
as shall be suitable to his position
diligently to provide moreover as
concerning the receipts of his
214 John Gregory was mayor of the town in 1413-4.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
243
& tenementos fuo& vna cum exjpn
eidm Maiori aut luccefforib} eius
tociens quociens cum ad hoc fu^int
requifiti fidelem compotu ad red-
•dendf . Et fup hoc ijdem Thomas
Hunt & Agn inuenerunt pleg &
manucaptores ad jlmilTa omia &
fingula ex pte sue fltacta fidelit9
obleruanda . Videtit Joftem Cur-
teys Capellanum & Thomam
Blaby de Norfit M9cer vtrumq}
•eo£ sub pena . xl . ii
QUOMODO BAILLI NORHT
FACRENT LEZ MEYMPRIS
CAPITULUM Lxijm &c
caule 3. lez baillifsde la
ville de Norftt deaunt ces
heures efteantes ont trop greu-
oulement pris de} home} due
melme la ville enfraunchile} p
colour de lour office excefliue3
sume} de moneye pur maymprife
fuete & Aife a eux faire agraunde
-damage & Arrerifment de3 home}
fuyfdit} Pur ceo Alafemble temi}
en elglile de feynt Gyle du dite
ville deuant John Spryng adonqs
illeqs Mair le jordy pichein Aps
le claufe de Pafk Ian du regne nre
f^r le Roye Henry quint puis le
queft tiers p affent de .xxiiij . com-
burgenfe} & tout le C5ialte du
mefme
lands and tenements together
with his expenses to the same
Mayor or his successors as often
as they shall be required so to do
to render a faithful account And
for this the same Thomas Hunt
and Agnes have found sureties
and bondsmen faithfully to ob-
serve the premise all and singular
mentioned on their part viz John
Curteys Chaplain and Thomas
Blaby of Northampton Mercer
each of them under a penalty of
40 pounds
How THE BAILIFFS OF NORTH-
AMPTON SHALL TAKE BAIL
CHAPTER LXII &c
By reason that the bailiffs
of the town of Northampton [Folio 29b.]
before the hours fixed have too
grievously taken from the free
men of the same town under
pretence of their office exces-
sive sums of money for bail suit
and to give them ease to the
great damage and annoyance of
the men aforesaid Therefore at
the assembly held in the church
of Saint Giles of the said town
before John Spryng 215 then and
there mayor the Thursday next
after Rogation Sunday [gth May,
1415] in the third year of the reign
of our lord the king Henry fifth
since the Conquest by the as-
sent of the 24 coburgesses and
all the commonalty of the same
215 A John Spryng, Sprynge or Spryggy, was mayor of the town in 1410-1,
1414-5, 1415-6, 1420-1, 1425-6, 1426-7, 1428-9, 1436-7, probably father and son.
John Spring was a member for the town at the parliaments held ist Henry IV.,
.and John Spriggy gth Henry V.
R 2
244
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
bayll
la ville illeoqs Affemble} or-
deigne3 eftt & pur tout} ioure}
eftabli} q les baillifs du dee ville
quore funt & q en temps Auenir
serrount ne pnderent defore
enanant dafcum home enfraun-
chife de la ville emfdit} Arreftu
the fees Of a P Dref nre Ser le Roye mainpnable
wr1ttTertetStodbypur mainpris fute & aife a Iu3
fayre outre xxd Et le Clerk du Ie3
dit} bailiff} ne jlndera outre vjd
purfon fee Et Ie3 quatre s^ieaunt}
de Ie3 baillefs ne pnderant pur
los fee3 outre iiijd . ceft atfauour
chefcun jd. Et si alcun3 de3 baillef}
fuifdits reteignet en prifoun album
home de la condicon iuifdce aps
[Folio soa.] ceo q cely home eit profri A eux
deux mainpuos iumfant3 pur eux
garder Iau3 damage encontre le
Roye & la ptye de la deliuance
hors de prilbn . Ou sils pignent
pur mainprife fuete & aife fair
outre le Some de xxd fuifdit3 . q
adonqs bri lirra adit home areftu
de recoSer des dit3 Baillifs la
value de la moneye a la double
iffi p eux reflu encontr ceft ordi-
nance & ceo p la furvewe del
Maire qi s9ra pur le temps &
de fon counfaill et ialemeyns fe3
damage5 a eftre taxe} p mefme
la mayre & foun counfaill pur
foun emprifonement
town at which it is ordered
and for ever established that
the bailiffs of the said town
who are and who in times to
come shall not take hereafter
of any free man of
the town beforesaid arrested
by writ of our lord the king
for bail suit and to give him
ease above 20 pence And the
clerk of the said bailiff shall
not take above sixpence for his
fee And the four sergeants of
the bailiffs shall not take for
their fees above 4 pence that
is to say each i penny And if
any of the bailiffs aforesaid
keep in prison any man of the
condition aforesaid after that
that man has offered to them
two bails sufficient to guard
them saving damage against the
king and the party for his de-
liverance out of prison Or if
they take for bail suit and to
give ease over the sum of 20
pence aforesaid that then good
leave to the man arrested to
recover of the said bailiffs the
value of the money to double
that by them received contrary
to this ordinance and therefore
for the use of the mayor who
shall be for the time and of
his counsel and moreover make
damage to other taxes for the
same mayor and his counsel for
his imprisonment
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
245
ORDINACO FACT p ARTE ALLU-
TARIOX TEMPE JOHIS LONDHM
MAIORIS ANNO RR HENRICI
QUARTI POST CONQM TERTlO
CAPITULUM LXIIJ'"
DIE LUNE px poft fm sci
Dionifij Anno r r Hen? quarti poft
conqiTi ?tio . Ad comodum ville p
JoRem Londham Maiorem ville
Norftt ex affenfu xxiiijorde confilio
suo iurat9 ac p alfenfum tocius
artis decornyfers216Crafteineadm
villa ordinatu eft quiit homo de
Arte p9dca impol^um incipiens
ad tenend Shopam de eadem arte
soluat finem de vjs viijd ad eius
inceptoem tarn de tempe elaps
qm de tempe futur except9 illis
qui antea fecerunt finem scSm
cons eiufdem artis in dca villa
Norfet vfitat9 Et qd bene licebit
Hugoni Brixworth Wiftmo Stok-
ton Wilimo Pirye cornys &
Hugoni Hikedon Magris nunc p
Anno future p dcm Maiorem
electf de
ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE
CRAFT OF CORDWAINERS IN THE
TIME OF JOHN LONDHAM 217
MAYOR IN THE THIRD YEAR
OF THE REIGN OF HENRY THE
FOURTH AFTER THE CONQUEST
CHAPTER LXIII
On the Monday next after
the feast of S Denys [Monday,
i6th October, 1401] in the third
year of the reign of Henry the
fourth after the Conquest For
the advantage of the town by
John Londham Mayor of the
town of Northampton by the
assent of 24 of his council
sworn and with the assent of
the whole craft of the "corn-
ysers crafte " in the same to
which it was ordained that every
man of the craft aforesaid here- tFolio sob.]
after commencing to hold a shop
for the same craft shall pay a
fine of 6s 8d at its commence-
ment as well for time past as
for time to come excepting
those who have heretofore made
a fine according to the usual
custom of the said craft in
the said town of Northampton
And that it shall be allowed
to Hugh Brixworth William
Stokton William Pirye cornysers
and to Hugh Hikedon now
chosen masters for the coming
year by the said Mayor con-
216 Bailey gives Cordineer as another form of Cordwainers.
217 John Londham, or Louthehal was mayor of the town in 1401-2. John
Lodham was member for the town at the parliament held 1st Henry IV.
246
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
shomaker that
settith vp a
shoppe
[Folio
eadem arte ac alijs magris qui p
tempe fuint9 impolfum eligend
dcos . vjs viijd . de quoit de eadm
the fees of a ar^e s'lc sn°Pam incipient leuar
& xld inde solu9 maiori qui p
tempe fuit9 ad opus ville & alios
xld inde penes eofdm magros ad
opus dee Artis retinere & dii-
pon9e put eis melius videbitr
expedire . Videit in tortis et alijs
luminar circa eucariftiam & sep-
ultur mortuo^ . ad honorem ville .
Et vlt9ius ordinatum eft p dcos
maiorem & xxiiijor qd t»n liceat
dcis magris ad finem dci Anni
fui ex affenfu tocius dee Artis
p se ipos alios magros de eadem
arte elig9e & fie de anno in
annu ipos magros fie electos
maiori qui p tempe fuit9 ad fac-
iend iuramentu eis adiungend
p9fentare . & dci magri sup sacrm
iurat ac alij magri qui pro tempe
fu9unt supvideant omes defectus
dee artis & p9fentent Maiori 'qui
p tempe f u9it omnes tranfgreffores
eiufdem artis vna cum defectub^
eo^dem . Jta qd p maiorem &
cofilm fum scEhn quantitatem eo^
delicti debite pot9unt puniri &
caftigari . Et fi aliquis de
cerning the said craft and to
other masters who for the time
shall be hereafter chosen to levy
the said 6s 8d from every man
so commencing a shop for the
same craft and to pay 4od of
it to the Mayor for the time
being for the work of the town
and to retain the other 4od of
it with the masters themselves
and to dispose of it as shall
seem to be most expedient for
them viz in torches and other
lights about the Eucharist and
burial of the dead to the honour
of the town And further it was
ordained by the said Mayor and
24 that it be allowed to the
said masters at the end of their
said year by the assent of the
whole of the said craft to choose
by themselves other masters of
the said craft and so from year
to year to present these mas-
ters so chosen to the Mayor for
the time being to take the oath
appointed for them And the
said masters being sworn upon
the Sacrament and the other
masters who have been for the
time shall supervise all short-
comings of the said craft and
shall present to the Mayor for
the time being all transgressors
of the same craft together with
the shortcomings of the same
So that by the mayor and his
council according to the extent
of their fault they can be duly
punished and chastised and is
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
247
arte pMca in p9dca vift Norht
comorans ad fumonit5em dco^
magro£ vel alicui3 eo^dem aut
alius eo£ deputati ad c;ta tempus
dies & loca fibi alTignand infra
Irbtatem eiufdem ville non venit9.
tune bri liceat dcis magris de
illo fie sumot9 & non venient?
tociens quociens huic ordinatoi
contauen9it vnam libram cere
recipe & leuar p fuo contemptu
vnde medietatem ad tortas jldcas
difponend & aliam meditatem
ad opus ville maiori qui p tempe
fuit lit>abunt &c
ORDINACIO FACT PRO PORCIS
TEMPE RICI WEMMES MAIORIS
ANNO RR HENRICI QUINTI
IX° & X°
CAPITULO LXIIIJ°
Die ven;is px poft feftum Sci
Gregorij Anno regni Regis Rici
fecundi poft conqueftum quarto
tempe Simonis Daventre tune
maioris Congregatone habita ad
Ecciiam Sci Egidij i"bm tune
ordinatum fuit ex c5i affenfu &
pclamat9 qd nullus dimitteret
porcos fuos in vijs infra
anyone of the aforesaid craft
staying in the aforesaid town
of Northampton shall not come
at the summons of the aforesaid
masters or any one of them or
any other deputy of theirs at
the certain times days and places
assigned to him within the lib-
erty of the same town then it
may be lawful to the said
masters concerning the man so
summoned and not coming as
often as he shall contravene
this ordinance to receive and
levy for his contempt one pound
of wax of which they shall dis-
pose one moiety to the torches
aforesaid and the other moiety
they shall deliver for the work
of the town to the mayor for
the time being &c
ORDINANCE MADE FOR PIGS IN
THE TIME OF RlCHD WEMMES318
MAYOR IN THE 9th & io<h YEARS
OF THE REIGN OF HENRY V
CHAPTER LXIIII
The Friday next after the
feast of Saint Gregory [Friday,
I5th March, 1381] in the fourth
year of the reign of Richard
the 2nd since the conquest in the
time of Simon Daventre219 then
mayor At a congregation held the
at the same church of Saint Giles
the following ordinance was
made by general consent and
proclamation that no one send
his pigs into the streets within
fyne for
at
218 Richard Wemmes, or Wemys, was
Wennys was member for the town at the
219 Simon Daventre in 1380-1, 1386-7,
mayor of the town in 1421-2. Richard
parliament held I2th Henry IV.
and 1390-1.
248
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 3ib.]
for curfyd
dogge vntyed
xl d.
villam extra cuftodiam ire fub
pena quadraginta denar soluenS
ville et vnius denar soluend:
Balliuis p quolibet porco &c
ORDINACIO FACT p CANIBUS
CAP° LXV° &c
Jtem qd nullus sub pena
quadraginta denar soluend: villate
dimitteret canem fuum Aliquem
n'£ gentilem & malum non fac-
ientem in villa Circumvagare
ymmo tenere huis canem in
ligamine nil! quando Aliquis De-
uillauerit & canem secum Here
voluerit
ORDINACO FACT p ELECT
BURGENS PLIAMENT
CAPITULO LXVJ° &c
[A]d congregaconem fctam in
ecctia p9dca die Martis in fepti-
mana Pafche eodem Anno tempe
dci Laurencij Haddon maioris
Simon Daventre & Ricus Raw-
lyns fuerunt electi Burgens p
parliamento tenend apud Westm
in Craftino sci Jofiis Ante portam
latinam tune px futur Et inlup
tune ordinatum fuit qd quilibet
Norht Maioratus officium pprius
ftens sit impofr^um electus in
Burgens
the town out of his custody
under a penalty of 4Ofl to be
paid to the town and id to be
paid to the Bailiffs for every
pig &c
ORDINANCE MADE FOR DOGS
CHAPTER LXV &c
Item that no one under a
penalty of 4Od to be paid to the
township shall let any dog of his
unless gentle and not mischievous
roam about the town but rather
to hold his dog in a leash ex-
cept when any may have gone
out of the town and wished to
have his dog with him
ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE
ELECTION OF BURGESSES OF
PARLIAMENT
CHAPTER LXVI &c
At a congregation held in
the church aforesaid on Tuesday
in Easter week in the same
year [Tuesday, i6th April, 1381]
in the time of the said Laurence
Haddon320 Mayor Simon Dav-
entre and Richard Rawlyns were
elected Burgesses for the Par-
liament to be held at Westminster
on the morrow of S* John before
the Latin gate [Tuesday, yth
May,i38i] then next ensuing and
furthermore it was then ordained
that everyone last holding the
office of mayor of Northampton
should be hereafter elected Bur-
220 Lawrence Haddon was mayor of the town in 1381-2. Laurence de Haddon
was member for the town at the parliament held 43rd Edward III.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
249
pliamenti si illud officium bur-
gens non j}ante getferit non
obftante officio Maioratus pdci &c
ORDINACO FACT p HOSTILLAR
CAP° LXVIJ
[A]d congregatoem habitam in
ecctia scj Egidij die dmca px
poft feftum sci Micfiis Arcni
Anno regni pdci Regis Rici
septimo tempe Thome Sutton
tune maioris ordinatum fuit
quod nullus hoftillar ville Nor-
hampton faceret panem equim
nee Allium panem ad vendend
in hofteleria lua sub pena viginti
folido^ soluend villat9 tociens quo-
ciens huic contrauenerit ordina-
c5ni &c
ORDINACO FACT p SUIENT"
BALLIOZ
CAP° LXVIIJ°
[A]d congregatoem nitam in
ecciia Egidij die Ven9is px ante
feftum Pni & Jacobi Anno regni
pdci Regis Ricardi quartodecimo
p Alfenfum xxiiij01' Burgenfium
tocius coitatis ville Norhampton
coram Simone Daventre tune
maiore eiufdem ville lumonito^
of Parliament if he shall not
have discharged the office of
Burgess before the office of the
mayoralty aforesaid being no
hindrance &c
ORDINANCE MADE FOR
INNKEEPERS
CHAPTER LXVII
At a congregation holden in [FoIio 32a>]
the church of S* Giles on Sunday
next after the feast of S Michael
the Archangel [Sunday, 4th
October, 1383] in the yth year
of the aforesaid King Richard An jnne
,1 , • r 1-1 o . 001 baking hofbred
in the time or 1 homas Sutton 231 XXs.
then Mayor it was ordained that
no innkeeper of the town of
Northampton should make horse-
bread or any other bread to sell
in his inn under a penalty of
2os to be paid to the Steward
as often as he shall contravene
this ordinance &c
ORDINANCE MADE FOR
SERJEANTS OF THE BAILIFFS
CHAPTER LXVIII
At a congregation holden in
the church of S4 Giles on Friday
next before the feast of Philip
and James [Friday, 28th April,
1391] in the 14th year of the
reign of the aforesaid King
Richard by the assent of the 24
burgesses of the whole commonal-
ty of the town of Northampton be-
fore SimonDaventre222thenMayor
of the same town summoned and
221 Thomas Sutton was mayor of the town in 1383-4 ; and member at the par-
liament held 42nd Edward III.
222 Simon Daventre in 1380-1, 1386-7, 1390-1.
250
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
sjaunteihsehaii
nott beg payne
& congregate^ orclinatu tuit qd
s9uientes videiit Clauigpi Ballio^
Norhampton deceto in villa Nor-
certa tempa Anni non mendica-
bunt sub pena viginti solido^
leuandad opus villede quocumq}
illc>£ hoc faciente tociens quociens
&c
assembled it was ordained that
the Serjeants viz the macebearers
of the bailiffs of Northampton
henceforth [either] in the town
or without as they are accus-
tomed to do at certain times of
the year shall not beg under a
penalty of 2os to be levied for
the work of the towrn from
each one of them so doing as
often as &c
[Folio sab.]
ORDINACO FACT p VADIJS
DELIBAN
CAPITULO LXIX &c
[E]t infup ifcm tune fuit ordinatii
& conceffum qd omnes holes &
mulieres Nornt nentes vel hab-
ituri vadia et diftrictiones in
Cuftodia quo£cumq3 Camerario^
coitatis ville jldce pro quacumq}.
caufa il3m iacencia qd acquietent
taken by the 0 .. . rr j- ,• j"
chaberiaynes to & fatiffaciant pro QlctlS vadijs
be sold aftr a «««•,• M • r *}•
quartr of a yer et diftnctiomb3 mtra quartium
Anni poft captoem eo^dem lub
pena foriffactur eo^ vadio^ &
& diftricionu villate Et si ilia vadia
aut diftrictiones non fufficiant p
Anlciamentis p quib} leuant1
capiantr plura & meliora &c
ORDINANCE MADE
FOR REDEEMING PLEDGES
CHAPTER LXIX &c
And furthermore at the same
place it was then ordained and
conceded that all men and women
of Northampton having or going
to have pledges and distresses in
the custody of any chamberlains
of the commonalty of the town
aforesaid for any cause whatso-
ever lying in the same place
that they acquit and satisfy for
the said pledges and distresses
within a quarter of a year after
the taking of the same under
a penalty of forfeiting their
pledges and distresses to the
township And if those pledges
and distresses be not sufficient
for the amercements for which
they are levied more and better
ones may be taken &c
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
251
STATUTA ET ORDINACONES
DE NOUO P VAST LOG
SIUE PLAC
CAP° LXX &c
Quia cert a valle placere soli
infra villam jldcam finijs & Alijs
fordidis diaiimode occupant1' de
quib} Balliui dm Regis seu
Camerarij rbm aliqua redditus
feu proficua p tempa $?ita nullo
modo pceperunt nee pcipiunt in
prefenti Jdeo in vltimo gen-
erali colloquio in dee ville melior-
atoem vnamimo aifenfu ordinatum
exiftit piter & prouifum Quod
Maior & Camerarij ville Jdce qui
p tempe fuint decetero fieant
plenam poteftatem loco & noie
tocius c5itatis jlnoiate dimittendi
ad firmam omnes & fmgulas
Vaftoco 223 placeas foli infra villam
jldictam exiftentes sub Sigillo eo£
Communi p certis redditib} eis
et eo£ fucceiforib} ad vfum ville
jpdce Annuatim reddend & in the-
fauro Camerie rbm fideli? pibl-
uend Saluo femp balliuis dm
Regis rbm [qui] p tempe fuerint
de qualibet vafta placea foli dm
Regis rbm vno Annuali redditu
racionabili? fecundum porcione
eiufdem &c
oydgroundes
STATUTES AND ORDINANCES
MADE ANEW FOR WASTE SPOTS
OR PLACES
CHAPTER LXX &c
Whereas certain waste places
of ground within the town a-
foresaid are occupied by thieves
and other filthy persons here
and there from whom the bailiffs
of the lord king or chamberlains
in the same place have in no
manner received any returns or ^"e0ry&the
profits for times past nor are chaberlaynes
receiving at present Therefore
in the last general conference
for the improvement of the said
town by unanimous assent it
is ordained and provided that
the Mayor and Chamberlains
of the town aforesaid for the
time being henceforth may have [Folio asa.
full power in the place and
name of the whole commonalty
beforenamed of letting out to
farm all and singular waste
places of ground within the
town aforesaid existing under
their common seal for certain
rents to be rendered annually
to them and their successors for
the town aforesaid and in the
treasury of the chamber there
faithfully to be paid saving al-
ways to the bailiffs of the lord
king there for the time being
concerning any waste place of
ground there one annual rent
reasonably according to the size
of the same &c
223 This word should be -vastas.
252
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ALIA ORDINACO P LE BOWBELL
CAP° LXXJ°
r~p~|T pro eo qd in Ciuitate
L J London int? alias con-
fuetudines vna valde comendabilis
iftm in fpeciali fieatr qd ad horam
nouenam cuiuflifot noctis ferialis
& feftiualis anni quedam campana
in arcub} London voca? Bowbell
p ipaciu vnius miliaris folempni?
puliatur p quod omnes & iinguli
ad Ciuitatem pdcam laborantes
& in Campis ifcm noctan? ob-
fcurari eidra Ciuitati p hofpicio
fuo nendo citius poterint confluere
Et qd nullus campana Jdca
pulfata in Ciuitate p9dca abfq}
lumine & cauia rationabili cir-
cumvagat sub pena imprifona-
menti & graue redemptionis
Ciuitati pdce faciend Et ad
confimilem confuetudinem im-
pofl^um infra Villam Norhampton
effectual!? Rend & vtend . Pro-
uifum etiam & in gen^ali colloquio
jldco exiftit ordinatum qd in quali-
bet nocte feriali & feftiuali ad
horam nouenam eiufdem noctis .
magna Iblempnior campana Ec-
c^e ^^ Sco£ it>m p eiufdem
ecclie Sacriftam fpacio vnius
miliaris durante dece?o
ANOTHER ORDINANCE FOR
THE BOWBELL
CHAPTER LXXI
And forasmuch as in the city
of London among other customs
one greatly to be commended is
specially kept that at the ninth
hour of every night common
day and holiday of the year a
certain bell in the arches 224 of
London called Bowbell for the
space of one hour is solemnly
rung whereby all and singular
working at the city aforesaid
and benighted in the fields may
be able to betake themselves
to the same city more quickly
for getting shelter And that no
one after the bell aforesaid has
been rung in the city aforesaid
without a light and a reason-
able excuse shall roam about
under the penalty of imprison-
ment and paying a heavy fine
to the city aforesaid And for
the effectual establishment and
use of a like custom henceforth
within the town of Northampton
It was also provided and in
the general conference aforesaid
ordained that in every night
and festival at the ninth hour
of the same night the great
and more solemn bell of the
church of All Saints there by
the sexton of the same church
for the space of one hour
224 This is the church of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside. London ; its Latin dedi-
cation was S. Maria de Arcubus.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
253
folempnit9 pullet' vt per fonu
eiufdem quicumq} in campis ifcm
obfcuritate noctis exiftentes ville
jldce citius pot9int adherere Et
qd nullus cuiufcumq} fuerit con-
ditois infra villam p9dcam pul-
facione dee magne campane finita.
niii secum lumen portauit &
rationabilem pro se ftuerit in hac
pte caufam latitans inueniat' Nee
vagans fub pena prifonamenti &
graue redemptionis fc3m maioris
it>m difcretionem qui pro tempe
fuerit ad vfum ville p9dce faciend
tociens quociens in p^miilb^ Aliquo
fuerit conuictus
lasting shall be solemnly rung
that by the sound of the same
whosoever are in the fields there
in darkness of night may more
quickly be able to reach the town
aforesaid And that no one of wtout
i j-j_* i i in the ftrete aftr
whatsoever condition he may be ix of the ciok
within the town aforesaid after
the ringing of the said great bell
is finished unless he shall carry a
light with him and shall have in
this respect a reasonable excuse
for himself may be found lurking
or wandering under the penalty
of imprisonment and paying a
heavy fine according to the
discretion of the mayor for the
time being for the use of the
town aforesaid as often as he
shall have been convicted in any
one of the premises
ORDINACO p" Coi IN CAMPIS
IBM HEND
CAPITULO LXXIJ &c
ET PRO tanto qd omnes pafcua
& pafture coitati ville Norhamp-
ton ptinencia per Carnificium &
alio£ ville eiufdem animalia qm
plura exiftunt deftructa & in dies
confumpta adCoitatis prenominate
dampnu non modicu piter &
grauamen . Ordinatum tune exiftit
& vlt9ius prouifum qd quilibet
liber homo ville Norftt duo ani-
malia bruta in Cuib}
ORDINANCE FOR HAVING
COMMON IN THE FIELDS THERE
CHAPTER LXXII &c
And forasmuch as all the
meadows and pastures belong-
ing to the commonalty of the
town of Northampton by the
many beasts of the butchers
and others of the same town
are destroyed and consumed from
day to day to the no small loss
and grievance of the common-
alty before named It was then
ordained and further provided
that every free man of the town
of Northampton may have two
brute beasts in the common
254
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pafcuis & pafturis p9noiatf libere
[Folio 34a.] & quiete annuatim pafturata tantu
& non plura Heat decetPo tempe
no ma kepe commu nifi finem dee ville Came-
mo beftes than .. ,n .,
too vpon the rarijs p tempe exiftentib} p
coraons . 9
quohbet aiahum p'dco^ capite
duob} aialib} fuis p9noiatis femp
except9 annuatim fecerit & eis
fidelit9 foluerit put in ea pte
pot9int concordare sub xxs pena
ad vfum dice ville pibluendf
tociens quociens de contrario
ordinatipnis pientis in Aliquo
fuerit conuictus
meadows and pastures before-
named grazing freely and quietly
only and no more hereafter in
common time unless he pay a
fine to the chamberlains of the
said town for the time being for
every head of beasts aforesaid
(his two beasts before named
always excepted) every year and
faithfully pay to them according
as they shall be able to agree
in that respect under a penalty
of paying 2os for the use of
the said town as often as he
shall have been convicted in
anything contrary to the present
ordinance
ALIA ORDINACO PRO
VENDITORIBUS EXTRANEIS
CAPITULO LXXIIJ° &c
Jtem quia diuerli Mercer Hab-
ardaffhatores Cultellarij & alia^
re£ venalium hardeware nuncu-
pate^ venditores extranei diuiis
vicis & lods ville P^C CUITl mer-
chandi}is fuis diebs nicatiuis in
eadem villa viitatis . Et p9cipue
int9 fontem in regno coco^ & occi-
dentalem corneram Cimit9ij ecciie
omi Sco^ it>m ante hec tempa flare
confuerunt in p9t9euntiu nocu-
mentu & contra confuetudines
formam ab antiquo vlitat .
ANOTHER ORDINANCE FOR
STRANGE TRADERS
CHAPTER LXXIII &c
Also since divers strange
mercers haberdashers butchers
and sellers of other goods for
sale called hardware in divers
streets and places of the town
aforesaid have been accustomed
heretofore to stand with their
merchandise on the usual market
days in the same town and
especially between the fountain
in the Cooks' Quarter 225 and
the west corner of the church-
yard of All Saints in the
same place to the injury of the
passers by and against the cus-
toms [and] form anciently used
225 Probably Mercers' row : the Cooks' Arms stood by the conduit or fountain,
where Waterloo House now stands.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
255
Predci maior comburgenfes & Co-
itas lup p9miffis volentes remedm
prouidere Et diet9 confuetudinem
antiquam in fuam formam & vim
totalit9 reformare . Ordinarunt &
inftituerunt vnamint pfuturquod
p9dci venditores extranei cuiuf-
cumq5 artis fuerint omnibus
dieb} in quib} m9catu in Nor-
hamptonRetrinregno mercenario^
ifom iuxta Ie3 ffiilMalles cum fuis
m9candi3isquibufcumq3 scdm con-
fuetudinem ab antique vt p9fertur
habit9 decetero ftent in foro ita
& non alibi sub pena xxs de eo£
quolibet ad vium ville p9dce
leuandf tociens quociens in
p9miffis inueniatr vel aliquis eo^
inueniatr delinquentes se delin-
quens contra formam p9libatam
The aforesaid mayor fellow-
burgesses and commonalty wish-
ing to provide a remedy for the
premisses and wholly to restore
the said ancient custom to its
own form and force have or- [Folio 34b>]
dained and appointed unani-
mously for the future that the
aforesaid strange traders of what-
soever craft they may be on all
days on which a market is held
in Northampton in the Hirelings'
Quarter there near the fish stalls
with all their merchandise what-
soever according to the custom
anciently held as is reported
shall stand in the market place
there and not elsewhere under
a penalty of 2oa to be levied
from every one of them for the
use of the town aforesaid as
often as he be found in the
premises or any one of them
transgressing against the form
before delivered
ALIA ORDINACO PRO COMMUN
PIXIDE
CAPITULO LXXIIIJ° &c
Item p omn p9dce ville Aflen-
fum coem prouimm exiflit &
Stabilitum qd vna pixidis cois
ferrura dua^ clauiu sufficient9
confecta pro finib3 & alijs proficuis
virtute officij maioratus rbm
Annuatim annuatim
ANOTHER ORDINANCE FOR THE
COMMON CHEST
CHAPTER LXXIIII &c
Item by the common assent
of all of the aforesaid town it is
provided and established that
one common chest stoutly
wrought of iron with two keys
shall be henceforth procured
for the fines and other re-
ceipts by virtue of the office
of the mayoralty there annually
hereafter accruing in the same
256
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
impofterum prouenientib} in ea-
dem pixide imponendis & cufto-
diend in villa p9dca decet9o heatr.
Que quidem pixidis p9notata in
cuftodia maioris & claues eiufdem
in cuftodia Camerario^ dee ville
p tempe exiftent annuatim Re-
[Foiio s$a ] rnanebunt toto tempe fuo£ officio^
occupationis toto tempe fuo& Of-
ficio^ occupacione durante Et qd
camerarij p9dicti de finib} & pro-
ficuis jldictis in dcapixide content9
Maiore ville p9dcte p tempe ex-
iftent9 viginti marcas p feodo fuo
cum omib} & fingiis expenc forin-
fec p villa p9dca p ipm fact9 &
faciend ad fefta Paiche & Sci
Petri Aduincia equisporcionibus
that the annuatim foluent indilate . Et qd
: ville Maior p tempe
exiftens aliquid de finib} & pro-
ficuis p9dictis ad vfum suupprium
contra formam p9mifTam impoir0-
um Aliqualit9 recipiat . Nee con-
celamentu inde modo quocumq}
faciat neq3 pixidem p9dcam in fua
cuftodia . vltra vnum diem poft
compotn Anni fui plena? confect9
feodo fuo expenc p9dctis fibi tune
integre pfolutis Aliquo modo re-
tineat . Sed eandem pixidem
eifdem Camerarijs 010 tune lib-
erari faciat sub pena fui feodi
p9fcripti finalis pdicionis
h?vye°xxtiumkes nullus
chest to be put and kept in
the town aforesaid Which chest
indeed beforenamed shall remain
for the year in the custody
of the mayor and the keys
of the same in the custody of
the chamberlains of the said town
for the time being during the
whole time of the tenure of
their offices And that the cham-
berlains aforesaid from the fines
and receipts aforesaid contained
in the said chest to the mayor
of the town aforesaid for the
time being shall without delay
pay 20 marks for his fee with
all and singular outside expenses
for the town aforesaid incurred
and to be incurred by him at
the festivals of Easter and S*.
Peter ad Vincula in equal por-
tions every year And that no
mayor of the said town for the
time being shall hereafter in
any way receive anything from
the fines and receipts aforesaid
for his own proper use contrary
to the form set forth Nor may
he make concealment of it in
any way whatever nor may he
in any way retain the chest
aforesaid in his custody after the
the account of his year has
been fully finished his fee [and]
expenses aforesaid having been
paid in full But the same
chest to the same chamberlains
must then surely cause to be
delivered under the penalty of the
final loss of his fee prescribed
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
257
Et qd cois Clauiger maiori p9dco
annuatim affignatus ad finem
cuiuftibet menfis Anni omnes &
iingulas denar sumas p ipm de
finib} p9dictis modo tempe leuat9
leuand recept9 & Recipiend
Cam9arijs p9dictis fub pena officij
sui pditionis & ab eodem expul-
fionis pfoluet & cum dilatione poft
poita liberauit . Acetiam qd idem
cois clauiger & Camerarij pMicti
Annuatim infra Vnu Menfem px
poft feftum saci Micftis coram
auditorib} p coitatem ville p9dce
electis seu eligend .fidelit9comput-
abut & omia Arreragia compoto^
fuo^ p9dicto£ quo£cumq3 imme-
diate plene tune plbluent . omni
exculatione impedimento leu dii-
one in hac pte poftponendf &
totali? omittendf . Que quidem
arreragia p9dca Ac omne supplu-
fagiu monete in Coi pixide tune
inuent9 annuatim infra duos dies
poft compotos p9dctos finitas px
fequent9 cuftodib} cois Cifte ville
p9dce ad ea ineadem Cifta ad
vium eiufdem ville fidelit9 con-
f9uandf p auditores p9dcos oio
delit»antr in effectu
And that the common mace-
bearer annually assigned to the
said mayor at the end of each
month of the year shall pay
and without delay deliver all
and singular the sums of pence
by himself from the fines afore-
said at any time levied to be
levied received and to be received
to the chamberlains aforesaid
under the penalty of the loss of
his office and expulsion from the
same And also that the same
common mace-bearer and cham-
berlains aforesaid every year
within one month next after the
feast of S. Michael faithfully
make out their account before
the auditors elected or to be
elected by the commonalty of
the town aforesaid and shall
then immediately in full pay all tFolio 3St>.]
arrears of their accounts what-
soever all excuse hindrance
or delay in this respect being
wholly laid aside and omitted
Which arrears aforesaid and
every surplus of money then
found in the common chest every
year within two days after the
completion of the accounts afore-
said next following to the keepers
of the common chest of the
town aforesaid must be alto-
gether in fact delivered for them
to be faithfully kept in the same
chest for the use of the same
town by the auditors aforesaid
258
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[P]
ORDINACO PRO Coi RIPARIO
IBM
CAPITULO LXXV° &c
UR ceo q le coe ewe Ap-
pelle Nene app'tenaut
a la ffraunchife de Norhampton
eft graundement amentife de pef-
fons p pleufours pefcheours &
autres malfaifours p diuerfes reyes
& autres engynes ment refonable3 .
en deftruccion des peflbns & agrant
damage de la ville Ordeyne} . eft
[Folio s6a.] & pur tout} iours eftable3 p laffent
de xxiiij Burgeifes & toute la
Cdialte de la ville de Norhampton
fomone3 & aflemble} deuant Si-
mond Spicer adonqs Maire de
mefme la ville en la Glife de Seint
Gile lundy prefchoin apers le feft
de feint Michell Ian du regne nre
f^r le Roy Henry quart puis le
conqueft neofifme pur le coe pro-
fite de la dite ville Norftt q an-
nuelment Ie3 Chaumbleyns de
mefme la ville quy ferrent pur le
temps deformes aueront la gou-
ernaunce de tou3 Ie3 ewes appur-
tenant3 a la dite ville paiant3 a Ie3
Baillif3 . de mefme la ville quy
ferront p le temps . xxiiij8 enaide
de lour ferme . Et q Ie3 dit3
Chaumbirleyns lefleront Ie3 dit3
ewes chefcun an a ferme al oops
de la ville Et auxint q null fermour
de Ie3 dit3 . ewes decyenauant
auera ne
ORDINANCE FOR THE COMMON
RIVER BANKS OF THE
SAME [TOWN]
CHAPTER LXXV &c
Forasmuch as the common
water called Nene belonging to
the franchise of Northampton is
greatly denuded of fish by many
fishers and other evil doers by
diverse nets and other engines
much used in destruction of the
fish and to the great damage of
the town It is ordained and for
ever established by the permission
of the twenty four burgesses and
all the commonalty of the town of
Northampton summoned and as-
sembled before Simon Spicer226
then mayor of the same town in
the church of Saint Giles the
Monday next after the feast of
Saint Michael [Monday, 3rd
October, 1407] the ninth year
of the reign of our lord King
Henry the fourth since the con-
quest for the common profit of
the said town of Northampton
that annually the chamberlains of
the same town who shall for the
time hereafter have the govern-
ment of all the waters which
appertain to the said town pay to
the bailiffs of the same town for
the time being 24s in aid of their
farm And that the said chamber-
lains let each of the said waters
to farm at the will of the town
And also that no farmer of the
said waters from henceforth have
226 Simon Spicer was mayor of the town in 1407-8.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
259
vfera null maners de Reyes appe-
Ie3 dreyes tramayles le buches
eiant3.meindre maffh en le} brace}
ne en le} pifes de mefmes le} reis
forfq} trelx q home purra leger-
ment getter vne Grote de argent
p mye la maffh . et ceo pur falua-
cion des mefmiz peffons accreftre
pur eftor en Ie3 dyt3 ewes . forf-
prifesGogeouns menus& anguilles
El q Ie3 dit3 ffermours ne prond-
rent afcuns peffons en Ie3 dit3
•ewes a vendre ne a doner simoun
qchefcounpeffonij foite delongure
de . v . pouces au meins fur peyne
de payer ala ville . vjs viijd . & de
forffaire foun terme & Ie3 reys
fuifdit3 a chefcum feit3 qils ferront
trene3 . en le defaute Et outre ceo
q nulles molyners . eiant3 moleyns
en ferme dedains la fraunchife de
mefme la ville aueront ne vfeuront
afcuns reyes nautres engynes for-
fq} en la manerauantditfurmefme
la peyne Et q null fermor de Ie3
ewes fuifdit3 quy ferront pur le
temps leffera anully autre afonne
ptie de3 ewes auantdites fi life ne
foit q luy plerra dordeynre . a luy
vncompaignon alcomencementde
foun terme, Et auxint q nnll home
de Norhampton nautre q conq
defore enauant ne pefche en Ie3 .
dit3 ewes oue null maner de Reys
Angles neautres engynes fur la
peyne & forffaiture auantdit3
Sauuant tou3
or use any kind of net called drag
trammels or blocks having a
smaller mesh in the arms or feet
of the same net as aforesaid save
such as a man could easily draw
a groat of silver through the
mesh and this for the safety of
the same fish and to increase the
stock in the said waters save
gudgeons minnows and eels And
that the said farmers do not take
any fish out of the said waters to
sell nor to give unless each fish ^Folio
be of the length of five inches
at the least under the penalty of
paying to the town six shillings
and eight pence and to forfeit
their term and the nets aforesaid
each time they are taken in the
default And also that no millers
having mills to farm within the
franchise of the same town have
or use any nets or other engines
save in the manner aforesaid under
the same penalty And that no
farmer of the waters aforesaid
who shall be for the time being
shall let to any other his part of
the waters aforesaid unless it
shall be that it please him to
take a partner from the com-
mencement of his term And also
that no man of Northampton nor
any other whosoever hencefor-
ward shall fish in the said waters
with any kind of nets angles or
other engines under the pain and
forfeiture aforesaid Saving always
S 2
260
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 3?a.]
feit} q bien lirra auchefcun
home de la ville enfraunchife a
pefcher en Ie3 ewes de la dee ville
appelle} Olde ees . ouefq) les
Shouenettes chefcun Mefoardy
Vendredy Samady & autres iors
de Juner & null autres iors fil ne
foit p caufe de maladie sur peyne
de greuous Amerciment .
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE
SIMONIS DAVENTRE MAIORIS
ANNO RR RlCI SCDI X°
CAPITULO LXXVJ°
|~ A "j D huftengu tentum die lune
L J px ante dmc in Ramis
Palma^ Anno regni Regis Rici
Scdi decimo p Maiori Coronator
& xxiiijor comburgens in Gildam
Aulam plena? couocat9 ordinat9
fuit & poft modumpublice in diufis
locis ville Nornt pclamatu qd
omnes hdies & mulier ville Nornt
Rentes vadia aut diftrictones in
cuftodia quo£comq3 baftio^ ville
p^dicte que fuerunt ante diet9
diem p executionib} vel Amercia-
diftrefles
taken by the
baylys to be
forfayted by a • , A , . .,
day if they be mentis vel pro Ahqua cauia tan-
gente balliam fuam iacensia qd
acquitarent & satif facerent p dcis
vadijs & diftrictionib} citra . xlm
diem extunc px fequent sub pena
pditiois
that it shall be well allowed to-
each man of the town enfran-
chised to fish in the waters of the
said town called Old [? water]
also the "Shouenettes "each Wed-
nesday Friday Saturday and other
fasting days and no other days
if it be not because of sickness,
under pain of grievous fine
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME
OF SIMON DAVENTRE 227 MAYOR
IN THE TENTH YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF RICHARD THE
SECOND
CHAPTER LXXVI
At a Court of Hustings held
on Monday next before Palm
Sunday [Monday, 25th March,,
1387] in the tenth year of the
reign of King Richard the Second
by the Mayor Coroner and 24
burgesses regularly summoned to
the Guild Hall it was ordained
and presently publicly proclaimed
in divers places of the town of
Northampton that all men and
women of the town of Northamp-
ton having pledges and distresses
in the custody of any of the bailiffs
of the town aforesaid which have
been lying before the said day for
executions or fines or for any
cause touching his office of bailiff
that they acquit and satisfy for
the said pledges and distresses
within the fortieth day then next
following under the penalty of
22' Simon Daventre was mayor of the town in 1380-1, 1386-7, and 1390-1.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
26l
dicto vad & diftrict9 imppm Et qd
nullus decet9o Heat in Cuftodia
Baftio^ quo£cumq3 NorRt future^
vadia aut diftrictiones vt p9dcm eft
iacencia vltra ffeftum Sci Martini
in yeme p[x] post receirum huiui-
modi ballio£ Ab officio fuo sub
pena p9dca
perpetual loss of the said pledges
and distresses and that no man
hereafter shall have lying in the
Custody of any of the future
Bailiffs of Northampton pledges
ordistressesas is aforesaid beyond
the feast of Saint Martin in the
winter next after the removal of
such bailiffs from their office
under the penalty aforesaid
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE
HENRICI CAYSHO MAIORIS
ANNO RR RICI SCDI xix°
CAPITULO LXXVIJ°
[A]d congregationem hitam
Ad Ecciiam Sci Egidij NorRt
die Mercur in Ebdomada Pafche
Anno regni Regis Rici Secdi
poft conqm xix° p Affenfum
Maioris & viginti quatuor com-
burgenfes & tocius coitatis ville
Norht illuc tune congrega? or-
dinatus eft sicut prius Anno
pcedenti videit qd si quis in Cur
Norfit in quocumq} plito ad sec-
tarn Alicui8 querentis defenderit
se p legem & fec9it legem & ipe
defendens vel Alij cum eo legem
facientes poft modum inquietati
vel vexati fuerint in
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME [FoHo 3?b -,
OF HENRY CAYSHO228 MAYOR
IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KlNG RlCHARD
THE SECOND
CHAPTER LXXVII
At a congregation held at the
Church of Saint Giles at North-
ampton on Wednesday in Easter
week [Wednesday, 5th April,
1396] in the nineteenth year of
the Reign of King Richard the
Second after the Conquest by the
assent of the Mayor and the
twenty-four burgesses and the
whole commonalty of the town
of Northampton there and then
assembled it was ordained as be-
fore in the year preceding namely
that if any one in the court of
Northampton in any plea at the
suit of any complainant shall
defend himself by law and execute
the law and the defendant himself
or others with him executing the
law shall presently be disturbed
Henry Caysho or Cayso was mayor of the town.
262
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
the piayntiffs Cur Xpianitatf vel Alibi p piurm
to sue the
defendant for vel aliam sectam querentf vel
perjury by way ~ A
forfetteexxsa11 Altius eius noie qd idem querens
debet Amciari in xxs soluend ad
vfum ville Norftt tociens quociens
caius euen9int infutur
ORDINACO FACT p STALLAG
TEMPE JOHIS SHREWISBURY
MAIORIS ANNO REGNI REGIS
RICI SCDI VICESIMO
CAP° Lxxvnj0
[Folio s8a.] Ad congregacoem fcitam in
ecciia sci Egidij NorUt die dmca
px ante frm Exaltacois sc Crucis
Anno r r Rici scdi poft conqm
that ne Vicefimo p Aflenfum Maioris
freman shall .... _
pay for one XXllllor & tOClUS C5ltatlS Ville Norfet
stall in the «••• q
merkett so that ilhc tune congregat . Ordmatus
ground eft qd nullus li'b homo NorUt vide-
iit ad lifttatem eiufdem ville p
Curiam admilTus dece?o p aliquo
ftallo p mercandi3is fuis sup ven-
dendis . Ordinato soluet baftio
NorM futur nee eo£ miniftris ftal-
lagium Jta tamen qd non plura
or troubled in the Court of Chris-
tianity or elsewhere for perjury
or other suit of the complainant
or any other in his name that the
same complainant ought to be
fined in the sum of 20" to be paid
to the use of the town of North-
ampton as often as such cases
shall happen in the future
ORDINANCE MADE FOR
STALLAGES IN THE TIME OF
JOHN SHREWISBURY229 MAYOR
IN THE TWENTIETH YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KING
RICHARD n
CHAPTER LXXVIII
At a congregation holden in the
church of S Giles at Northampton
on Sunday next before the Feast
of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross [Sunday, loth Sept , 1396]
in the twentieth year of the reign
of King Richard the Second
after the Conquest by the assent
of the Mayor the 24 and the
whole commonalty of the town of
Northampton there and then
assembled it was ordained that
no freeman of Northampton that
is to say admitted to the freedom
of the said town by Court here-
after for any stall set apart for
selling his merchandize shall pay
to a future bailiff of Northampton
or to their servants stallage But
so that he may not have more
229 A John Shrewisbury, or Shrovesbury, was mayor of the town in 1378-9,
1385-6, 1393-4, 1396-7, 1405-6. Probably father and son. John Shrovesbury was
member for the town at the parliament held I3th Edward III.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
ftalla non neat $? vnum flancio
in m9cato adlocandf alijspcupie-
tate reddit3 inde nendi sub hac
cum ordinacone non reftriguntr
tales qui hent plura ftalla in m9cato
ab antique terrefixa.De hereditate
vel p inquiiitione vnde redditus
folet folui regius Atempe quo non
extat memoria flue ftallagia inde
preftando
stalls than one to be assigned
in the market for the desire of
getting gain from it While under
this ordinance such men are
not restrained as have more
stalls in the market anciently
fixed by inheritance or for
inquisition whence a rent to the
king is accustomed to be paid
from time immemorial or stallages
from them to be afforded
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE WILLI
SHEFFORDE MAIORIS ANNO
REGNI REGIS RICI SCDI
VlCESIMO PRIMO
CAPITULO LXXIX° &c
Et Ad congregatoem nitam
in Ecciia jldict dmca px poft ffef-
tum Exaltaconis see Crucis Anno
pdco p coem concefum coitatis
ville Ordina? fuit & conceffum
qd quiiit nouus burgenlis AdmiHus
adlrbtatem ville Nornt erit &
quietus Adie amiffionis sue p
vnum Annu lequentem qd non
debet poni in iura? nee inqui-
fitionib} inter ptes eo Anno &c
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE
TIMEOF WILLIAM SHEFFORDE230
MAYOR IN THE TWENTY FIRST
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF
KING RICHARD n
CHAPTER LXXIX &c
Nicholas Dalabere231
And at a congregation holden [Folio s8b.]
in the church aforesaid on Sunday
next after the feast of the Exalta-
tion of the Holy Cross [Sunday,
i6th September, 1397] ^n ^ne Year
aforesaid by the common consent
of the commonalty of the town it A man
... , . admytted he
was ordained and agreed that shall not serve
i i 'Ll_ j x. the court that
every new burgess admitted to yere
the freedom of the town of North-
ampton shall be undisturbed from
the day of his admission for one
year following that he ought not
to be put in juries or inquisitions
between parties in that year &c
230 William Shefforde, or Shefford, was mayor of the town in 1397-8, 1398-9,
and 1408-9.
231 At the foot of folio 38a is written, in the same hand as the marginal notes,
" Nicholas Dalabere." Probably the Town Clerk.
264
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Pr est ex pte Maioris die lune
in fefto Sci Hillarij qd nulli m9-
cenarij Amodo infra villam Nornt
portent pactas fuas nee m9candi3as
that no de oftio ad oftium loco Ad locum
bring wares seu domo ad domu ad m9candi3as
from howse to
house or place suas vendend sub pena xl Et
to place to sell
eadem ordinaco p Affenfum totius
coitatis Affirma? qd firma ftet &
ftabii die ven9is ante feftum sci
Thome Appii Anno r r Rici secndi
viceiimo primo in ecclia sci Egidij
Tempe Wifti Shefforde Maioris
[Folio 3Qa.]
It was ordered on the part of
the Mayor on Monday in the
feast of S. Hilary [Monday, ist
September, 1397] that no chap-
men henceforth within the town
of Northampton shall carry their
packs or wares from inn to inn
from place to place or from house
to house to sell their wares under
a penalty of 4Od And the same
ordinance by the assent of the
whole commonalty is affirmed to
stand firm and established on
Friday before the feast of S*
Thomas the Apostle [Friday,
I4th December, 1397] in the 2ist
year of the reign of King Richard
the second in the church of Saint
Giles in the time of William
Shefforde Mayor
ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE
ORDINACO FACT P CARNIFIC BUTCHERS IN THE TIME OF JOHN
TEMPE JOHIS FFOX MAIORIS Fox232 MAYOR IN THE
ANNO REGNI REGIS RICI SIXTEENTH YEAR OF KING
SCDI xvj° RICHARD THE SECOND
CAPITULO LXXX° CHAPTER LXXX 233
FFOR REGRATYNG OR FORESTALLYNG OF FFISHE WTIN THIS TOUN
OR WTOUT BY THE SPACE OF XXIIIJ MILES &C
Ordenyd it is alib that no ffifmer ne non other man that fiflhe
felleth ne bye fiflhe of no man that fiflhe bryngeth to this toun to
fell tyll that he that the fiflhe bryngeth haue holden his chepyng
fullyk the'fyrfte daie that he cofnyth into this toun Ne no marchund
of the toun ne Go owt of the toun nygh nor ffar by xxiiij miles from
Norhampton for to byen ffrefhe ffyfhe ne fait fylhe for derflbn the
toun And if eny therof be ov9takyn be he am9cyed to the toun at
ijs And if he do thryes & therof be outakyn forfwere he the crafte
a yere & a daie &c
2a2 John Fox was mayor of the town in 1384-6, 1392-3, 1399-0, and 1400-1.
233 Space has been left by the scribe on five pages for this chapter, but the
pages have been filled up by two different hands, the first page of the i6th
century, the remainder of the I5th.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 265
ORDINACO ARTIS Cissox A° R R'HENR
SEXTI xxnjto
To ALL TRUE CHRISTIN MEN this prefent Wrytyng jndented
Aren to be holde feen Redde or herun Thomas Deraunt334 Maire
of the toun of Norhampton And xxiiij of his Comburgeis to hym
fworn . Senden gretyng in god eulaftyng . Sith in the gen9all counfell
of the feide toun ther holden the Monday next aftir the ffefte of
Seint Andrewe thappoltell [Monday, yth December, 1444] in the
xxiij yere of the reigne of kyng Henry the Syxte Apetycion by
byll to them put and ihewed for the Comyn profet and honefte
of the leide town in hit conteyned . Sithe the Taillours Crafte
in the feide Toun vied . ffull many gentilmen and other people
of oure lorde the Kyngf for the lhapyng of theire clothyng and
of their f9untes . And of theire lyvereys dayly comen to the fame
town . Nevertheles noo Rule ne order put ne is in the faid
Crafte betwene thartificers and mynyftres of the feide Crafte . So
that euyche of them holdyth hym felfe as great and hable A
maifter oonas another . Wherefore the feide gentilmen and diule
liege people of our lord Kyngis oft tynes for vnhable fhapyng
in the meayne tyme aren hurte or made worfe and dnTeived to
her Jiudice . And alfo folaunder and detriment to the faide toun .
And therfore the faide Maire and his Comburgeis by the comyn
AiTent of the feide toun . Wyllen in the faide Crafte ordynaunce
and good Rule be putt and ordent for the Weale and honoure
of the feid Toun . And to the laude and honoure of god
ppetually to endure And inthat that the ordeinanaunce and good
Rule of the feide crafte there more pfitly and faithfully may be [Folio 4oa.]
vfed This conftyticion and ordinaunce fuyng ftonde for lawe in
the faide toun for euer to endure . So that by the lyfctees &
prveleges therof by oure lorde the kyng and his pgenytores
graunted and confermed . By the whiche they may Amonge other
lawes Amonge or bytwene them felfe make for the good Rule of
the fame toun to be kepte . Jn the ffyrfte they chofen and putten
John Clayhunger and John Lylly of the faide Crafte Maifters and
oufeers for defaltes in the fame crafte correctoures for the yere
next fuyng . And that they and their fucceffoures haue an halle
in the which thei may when they wyll call to gedyr all thoo that
vfen the feid crafte . And thoo called that abfent them felfe to
ponyflhe . And there of them felfe in like wife . ij maifters for the yere
234 Thomas Deraunt was mayor of the town in 1444-5.
266 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of theire owne to be for to chofe The whiche fhall make othe
by fore the Maire of the toun for the tyme beyng in the gen9all
counfell faithfully to occupie and the faide maifters to haue power
all trefpafoures and defauters of hem pleynly to correcte . Alwey
excepte that if it happen any contraufie Amonges hem parcially
for to fprynge or hadde . hit be put to the maire of the faide
toun beyng for the tyme . To amende leeft they putt foo great
ponyfhment to the trefpafoures . or money of hem wylfully take
by extorcion and putte or turne the money to theire owne ppur
[Folio 4ob.] vfe . But fuche Amendes for defautes and other fumes of money
levyed of men of that Crafte Rightfully taken into the honoure
of god and for the Welfare of the faide crafte medefully and
charytably as it fues Thei putte and difpofe And good rule and
ordinaunce amonge hem holde as it fues That is to fey that no
Taillor in the toun forfeide nor in the fubbarbys ther holde
Ihoppe . But he or that by the maifters of the feide Crafte be
conyng and Able in the fame and in his man^s for the avayle
to the feid Craft foo conably provid . And then in the bygynnyng
of fettyng vppe of his fhoppe that he pay to the feid maifters .
That is to fey euy ftraunger iijs iiijd . And of euy other man
as in maner of A prentiz within the feide toun in the feide
crafte taught xxd of the whiche the maifters the halfe shall
delyue to the Maire and Comyn f^*unt of the feide town to the
vfe and profite of the Maire and Comynalte . And the other halfe
the Maifters to kepe for the comyn neceffaryes & nedis of the
feide crafte . And the fuftentacon of the ffra?nite of Seint John
Baptifte and the light abowte the Sacrament in the Chirche of
Alhalowes of Norhampton to be fpendid And that no Tailkf
holde any Chaumbir in the feid Toun ne in the fubbarbis
therof but allonly for hym felfe his wiffe and his Chyldren ppur
clothes to be fewed And yf any Taillor be founde in that tref-
[Folio 4ia ] Pafyn£ by A moderate mercyment by the forfeide Maifters or
the Maire as it is feide for to be taken in the vfis & neceffarijs
forfeide evenly or equally to be deuyded vnto the tyme he leve
fuche Chaumbyr and he be fo chaftyfed And that hereaftirwarde
Taillours of the feide craft in Norhampton than to be Brethern
of the feid ffra?nite of Seint John Baptifte by the Maifters of
the Craft Abovefeide to be receyvid and to gydyr fworne for
to take vppon hem the ordinaunce and conftiticions of the feide
ffratnite . And to pay their quar?ages & to fupporte and mayn-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
267
tene all other charges of Right to the feide ffra?nite longyng Jn
wittness hereof to oon partye of this j}fent writyng endented
Ayenste or with the Maifters of the feide Crafte to Abide .
Afwell the comyn seall of the feide toun of Norhampton . As
the seall of thoffice of the meiryalte of the fame toun Aren Appen-
daunt or putto . And the other partie of the fame wryting
indented Ayenfte the feide Meire and xxiiij comburgeis in the
Comyn Chefte of the fame toun Amonge certeyne Evydence for
cue to be kepte vnder the feall of the faide John Clayhunger
and John Lylly reft sealed yeven at Norhampton the xxu day of
Augufte the year of the Reign of the feide kyng Henry the
fyxte Aftyr the conquest xxiij" [2oth August, 1445]
235TEMPE THOME HUNT MAIORIS iNTHETiMEorTHOMAsHuNT236
JOHIS LEYCETT* & MAYOR JOHN LEYCETTUR
THOME POPE BALL A° RR & THOMAS POPE BAILIFFS
E IIIJa XIIJ° &C IN THE I3TH YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF KING EDWARD iv &c
iio 4ib.]
Itm jps qd Ricus Knyghtley
Armig occupat quandfn peciam
prati iux le Olde yee ex pte bor
& prat9 vocat9 Duftoun mede ex
pte Auftral et Abuttat ex oppoit9
gardini de Almelliowfe fiitua? fup
pontem Occiden? ex pte Occidf
it>m et extendit se vfq} pratum
dni de Dalyngton ex pte Orientli
que quidm pecia prati jlfat9 Ricus
Knyghteley occupat in piu3m ville
NorRt Jdeo in mia &c
It is also presented that
Richard Knyghtley Esquire oc-
cupies a certain piece of meadow
near the Old Yee on the north
side and a meadow called Dus-
toun mede on the south side and
it abuts opposite the garden of
the Almshouse situate over against
the West bridge there on the
West side and it extends right
up to the meadow of the lord
of Dalyngton on the east side
which piece of meadow aforesaid
Richard Knyghteley occupies to
the prejudice of the town of
Northampton And so in mercy
&c
235 The original handwriting recommences here.
236 Thomas Hunt was mayor of the town in 1465-6, 1473-4, and 1481-2 ; and
one of the members of the parliament held 28th Henry VI.
268
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 4aa.]
IN THE TIME OF
WILLIAM AUSTIN 237 MAYOR
IN THE l6TH YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF KING EDWARD iv
It is also presented that John
Abbot of the monastery of S*.
James near Northampton and
the convent of the same place
occupy a certain piece of meadow
near the Old Yee on the North
side and a meadow called Duston
mede on the South side And it
abuts opposite the garden of the
almshouse situated over against
the West bridge there and it
extends right up to the meadow
of the lord of Dalyngton on the
East side which piece of meadow
before written belongs to the
steward of Northampton of right
And which piece of meadow the
abovesaid Abbot and convent
occupy to the prejudice of the
town of Northampton And so in
mercy &c
ORDINACO P ART TEXTOR TEMPE JOHIS BERNHiLL238 MAIORIS
[ORDINANCE FOR THE^ WEAVERS' CRAFT MADE IN THE TIME OF
JOHN BERNHILL MAYOR]
Syn that many and dyuife vnfitttyng contectes and debates
mys rule and vngoodly gounaunce hath long tyme regned in the
Crafte of Engliflhe weuers of Norhampton bitwene the Maiftirs
and the iorneymen of the feide crafte bi caule that good gounaunce
& puyfion haue not be duly ordeyned puided and executed as
good pollitike ruld wolde and requyreth in the feide crafte
by fore this tyme Where thurgh grete and notable damage
TEMPE WILLI AUSTIN
MAIORIS A° R R
E inj*1 xvj°
Itm $s qd Johes Abbas monefr°ij
Sci Jacobi iuxta Norftt et eiufdf
loci conuentus occupant quandm
peciam prati iux le Olde yee ex
pte borial et pratum voca? Dus-
ton mede expte Auftral Et Abuttat
exoppoto Gardini de Almelhoufe
situa? fup p5tem Occidf rbm et
extendit se vfq} pratum dm de
Dalyngton ex pte Orientli Que-
quedf pecia prati jlfcripti ptinet
villa? Norht de iure Et quam
peciam prati pfatus Abbas et
conuentus occupant in jliudm
ville Norftt Jdeo ipi in mia &c
237 William Austyn, or Austin, was mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-9,
and 1476-7.
238 John Bernhill or Barnell in 1431-2.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 269
harme late hath be don in dede and lyke is to contynue that
god forbede . But remedye be more haftily and effectually bi good
provifion sette for the wele fare of the teide crafte Wherefore
John Bernhill mair of the toun of Norhampton by the wyfe and
worthi avife and hole difcretion of his couniell to hym Sworne
with full compromiflion & agrement of all the Englillhe Maifters
& iorneymen of the feide Crafte of the toun of Norhampton
beyng bifore hym the monenday [25th August, 1432] in the morne [Folio 4ab.]
aftir the feft of Seint Bartilmewe the Apoftle in the yere of the
regne of kyng henri the iixte aftir the conqueft the tenth in the
Gylde halle of the feide toun . Willyng with all his myght power
and good entente to queme and pleafe god oure lorde moft sou-
eygne. and to avoyde and repele all man9pilles and myfchief} yminent
and like to ryfe . And to reform vnite peas and good accorde in
the feide craft infinitly to endur . Hath ordeyned puided and in
this jliente wrytyng included and specified diuie ordinaunces and
articles to be obferued and kepte fynally among hem without
menufyng or addicion to be made but if it be bi aiTent of the
mair for the tyme beyng os here aftir is expreifed and notede
ffirft that all the Maiftres and io'neymen of the feide crafte that nowe
ben and shull ben euy yere the monenday in the morowe aftir
pafch day aftir the good and comenable cuftome of her Craft
goo heneftly with her tapers of wex .os it hath be continued of
olde Auncyen tyme to the howfe of our lady feynt mary de la
pr238 be fyde Norhampton there offeryng vp here feide tapers
bifore the ymages of the Trynite and oure lady ther . And to
haue aftir her customable drynkyng and commucacon to gedyr [Folio 43a.j
withoute eny confedracies makyng. Chefyng the fame day ij
Maifters of the Englifih houfholders and maiftres of the fame
crafte. And maiftres of the io'neymen for the yere bi the advife
and aggrement of the mair beyng for the tyme. Byfore whom
thei fhulbe prefented and sworne for the good gounaunce of the
feide crafte. And allfo chefyng the fame day auditours to here
the accountes of the maiftres for the yere howe thei hau dif-
pended the goodes that thei haue receyued in the tyme of her
maiftirlhipp the which maiftres shull accounte duly euy yere at the
239 Saint Mary de la Pre was an abbey for Cluniac nuns, situate in the meadows
to the south of Northampton, and in the parish of Hardingstone. Scarcely any of
the old building now remains.
270 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
dales Affigned bi the comyn aflent of the feide crafte. And
that e3y maifter of the feide crafte pay yerely to her light and
torches iijd. And euy io'neyman ijd. the which lhalbe rered and
gedered bi the feide maiftres fo chofen for the yere afwell the
maiftres of the iorneymen the which with other goodes that
cafuelly fallen to the comyn vie fhall be putte into aboxe that lhal
abyde in the warde of the ij . maiftres of the maiftres of the
crafte bi caufe of fufficiante . And the keyes of the fame box fhull
remayne and abide in the warde of the ij maiftres of io'neymen.
So that no deceite fhall be had among hem . With the whiche
gode} fo rered and hadde to her comyn vfe as well the feide
[Folio 43b.] light att the houfe of Seint Marie de la Pr As the light that
hath and lhalbe continued bifore the Rode in the body of the
chirche of all halewen in Norhampton in the great pace of the
fame Chirche fhalbe founden duly and truly euy 3ere in the
worlhip of god oure lady and all his feintes withowte gruchyng
bi oufight of the Maire for the tyme . if eny compleynt be made
to hym in contrie of this ordinaunce.
And that noon of the feide crafte of the feide toun here aftir
plete other for eny man9 caufe in to the tyme that complaynte
be made to the Maiftres of the feide crafte. And thei to make
there of relacion to the maire for the tyme the whiche Maire
fhall do his dever to fette hem at reft and good accorde within
xv daies next after the compleynt so to hym made. And if not
due accorde be made within the feide xv daies. Thanne be hit
lefull to the party that fyndeth hym aggreved to fewe at the
lawe in this Courte accordyng to the littte of the fame And that
Conventiciey noman9 mayntenance confederacye conuenticle ne gederyng be
made amonge hem in the feide crafte the whiche may turne into
difturbaunce of the pees affraying of the. kyngis people or inde-
crece or hynderyng of the comyn pfiste. And if it falle that
[Folio 44a.] thei wolde haue eny fpekyng to gider at eny tyme that thei
fhuldo it in noo wife withoute the wylle of the meyre for the
tyme. The whiche fhall haue full knowleche of her entente
whethir it be lawfull or not. And allfo that noon of the feide
crafte leue ne hyre ne by non other wyle delyuer to eny man
of the cuntre noo man9 flaye that longen to the feide crafte.
Servaunts And that no maifter delyuer ne put awey from hym noo s9uaunt
if that he haue werke for hym withoute A fourtenyght warnyng
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2JI
be fore ne no s^uaunt goo fro his Maifter withoute warnyng a fourte-
nyght before And if eny maifter sette any fuche s9uaunt awerke
that hath not gouen his maifter a fourthenyght warnyng before
that may be proued on hym . he fhall pay to the toun of Nor-
hampton xxd . And to the Iy3te of the feide crafte xxd . And the
you'neyman that so warneth not his Maifter xxd. to the feide
toun and to the crafte
And that no ftraunger of eny othir crafte mall were ne haue
eny hoding of the leyuey of the feide crafte Nor noo fuche
lySey fhalbe by the maifters delyued to hym vpon the peyne
that is conteyned in the ftatute of gevyng of lyues
And allfo that all tho that weren the lyuey of the fame crafte
that be able werkemen Ihull wyrke in the fame crafte byfore tFolio ^^
eny other ftraungers. And if ther be any ftraunge man fet on
werke by Any of the feide maiftres . And he knowe any able and
well ruled werkeman of her Iyv9ey . that hath noo werke he fhall
pay to the feide toun and the craft xld euenly to be departed
bytwene hem os oftyn os he is atteynt of the contrarie
And allfo noon fuche os werith of the feide lySey fhall in noo
wife goo owte of Norhampton to s^ue eny man of the cuntre as
longe os eny of the feide maiftres haue eny werke for hym and
tyll the feide toun of Norftt be s^ued.And he that is outaken
in the contrary fhall pay to the faid toun & crafte xld. euenly
to be departed bitwene hem as oftyn tyme as it fo be tallith
And allfo what io'neyman that fhalbe receyved into the lySey of
the feide crafte of the feide crafte mall pay at his entre iiijd. to
the fultinaunce of the torches of the fame crafte And more o3 if
that any ftraunge man come to Norhampton to wyrche he shalbe
recyued bi sume of the maiftres of the feide Crafte to wirke
there a fourthenyght . And be redy paied for his werke . And if
he will wyrche lenger he fhall paye to the feide Iy3te ijd or
ellis his maifter that he wrought wyth mail paye it for hym [Folio 4$a.]
And what man of the feide Crafte be noyfed of eny felonye bi ffeionyes
furmettyng and fuggeftion of eny man That man foo noyfed fhall
not wyrke in the fame crafte in the toun of Norhampton tylle
he be lawfully excufed or founden gylty or noo
272 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
And that the Maiftres make relacion to the maire for the tyme
of the man ibo noyfed without bannyffhyng or fyne taking of the
fame man
And that noman9 ordinaunces ne Articles fhull here aftir be
ordeyned ne prouyded made ne vied in the feide Crafte othir
than is conteyned and fpecified above vp the peyne of emprifon-
ment and makyng fyne and raunibm at the kyngf wylle . And
allib that all the feide io'neymen Ihull bere hem and [bejhaue
hem mekely and in lowly wife Afwell in wordes os in dedes to
her maiftres that thei ferven . And lefully obeye hem at all tymes
as it fitteth hem well to doo
And if ther be eny maifter or iorneyman of the ieide Crafte
that here Aftyr offendyth or brekyth eny articles or ordenaunce
Above conteyned ageyn the forme and the effecte of the fame
biforn exprerfed he fhall be emp^oned by the mayre of the
[Folio 4sb.] toun for the tyme xl" daies . And pay to the feide toun & Crafte
Cs. euenly to be departed bitween hem os oftyn os he is atteynte
in this mater
defamacion And what man of the feide craft maif? or io'neyman difclaunder
or diffame eny man of the feide crafte of vntrouth or falfnes
that he fhulde done or vfen in the fame crafte . And he may
not therof bryng forth his Wittneffe & proved and thereof be
atteynte and conuycte That thanne pay he to the profyte of
the toun of Norftt and to the feide crafte of Wewers xls. evenly
to be departed . The whiche ordynaunce wi othir above feide is
graunted and Affermed by John Hancok 24° Meyre of Norhampton
and hys counfell the monenday [i8th May, 1439] next after the
ffeeft of the Aflencion of our lord in the yere of the Reigne of
Kyng Henry the fyxte After the conqueft xvijth
And allfo hit is ordeyned that in the fame crafte be chosen . iiij .
[Folio 46a.] Auditoure} be the advyfe & the Aggrement of the hole crafte
and of the yorneymen whiche Auditoure} soo chofen fchulle occupie
the fame office all the terme of her lyffe and yf any of hem
decefe thanne the fame crafte holly with the yo'neymen fchall
240 John Hancock was mayor of the town in 1438-9.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 273
chofe other in her ftede And the fame auditoure} fchull ne2
occupie the office of the maifters of the crafte . And the forfeide
Maiftre} of the crafte and of the io'neymen for the yere beyng
fchul hafe ioyntly for her labour xld.
And alfo euy maifter of the feide crafte that wylnott Appere at Sommes
due sumonnes fhall paye to the torche lyghte ijli wex os ofte he
comyth not withoute that he hafe arefonable excufacion . And
the yo'neymen jii wex to the fame torche} os ofte os he comyth
nott v^oute that he haue Arefonable excufaciou . And allfo
that the feide Maifters fchull gederyn here mony and her dutees
to the fame Crafte longyng bothe the Maifters of the crafte and of
iorneymen iij tymes be yere . At the fefte of the Nativite of
Seynt John Baptifte Mighelmefle . Criftmeffe and our lady day in
lenton the Annunciacion the whiche ordenance with oj>er before -
feide ar graunted & Affermyd by Richard Wemmes 241 Mair of
Norhampton & his confell the Monday next aftir the feefte of
Seint John ]>e baptifte [Monday, 26th June, 1441] in the yer of
Y regn of kyng Herry )>e vjth aftir J>° conqueft xixth
And allfo it is ordeyned in the fame crafte that e3y Maifter [Folio 46b.]
in the feide crafte at his entre into the lyuey of the maiftres of the
crafte mail paye to the fuftynaunce of the torches viijd. And
euy iorneman at his entre of the lyuey of the iorneymen of the
feide crafte ihall paye iiijd to the fuftinaunce of the feide
torches . And for afmyche os the feide maifters and io'neymen
hau ftonde in varyaunce affore this tyme whether the feide money
ihulde be payed to the fuftinaunce of the maifters torches or
of the Jorneymens torches . Nowe therfore the feide maifters and
io'neymen by her comon Alfent be Accorded and aggreed in this
Wyfe for eumore )>* all the feide money fhalbe putt in comon
Afwell to the fuftenaunce of the torches of the Maifters os to
the torches of the iorneymen w'oute eny feuaunce . And that the
feide maifters and io'neymen (hull make her torches alwey to
gydur in comon And that thei put all the feide money into
her boxe eu os is it gederyd . And that they haue ordeyned a cofer
to leye all the ieide torches Jnne The whiche cofer shall haue
ij lokkys of the which the maifters fhall haue oon key . And the
41 Richard Wemmes or Wemys was mayor of the town in 1421-2, and 1440-1
T
274 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
wardens of the io'neymen Another key . And euy maifter & his
wyffe that ben in the lySey at her byrying fhall haue iiij torches .
[Folio 4?a.] And e3y yo'neman that ben in the lySey at her byrying fhall
haue iiij torches . And e3y jo'neyman that is not in the lySey
fhall haue ij torches at his byrying And e3y chylde of hers at
his byrying ij torches. The which ordeynance w' other above
feide ar graunted and affermed bi William Ruffhden242 Mair
than of Norhampton and his counfell in the Guyhald ther the
Monday next aftir the clofe of Pafche [Monday, ist April,
1448] the yere of Kyng Herry the Sixte aftir the conqueft xxvj
And ther put in the regeftre of recorde euer for to abyde
for fremes [strangers] doing her deyes
ORDINACO FACT p EXTRANEIS FFNCIPLEGIS TEMPE THOME
SALE2*3 MAIORIS ANNO R"R H vj" xj°
[ORDINANCE CONCERNING STRANGERS OBTAINING THEIR FREEDOM.]
We pore comons befeche you enterly with all our hertis that
no man fromhens forwarde be receyued in to oure ffraunches .
But he refyaunt within ]>* toun . or ellis that he be att loot and
scott at all tymes as we ffraunchifed men bene . ffuthermore as
touchand hem that hau be receyued into oure ffraunchife or fhul-
[Foiio 47b.] be here Aftyr . That it be liefull to the baillifff or her officers
for to somon hem at her Jnnes or at her Shoppes sith in the
toun lawfully for to appere at oure courte to palTe on queftis
betwene party and party . or ellis to make fyne with the Bailliffes
franchifed me a^ir the cuftom of the toun as we ffraunchifed men that be
tdhTtown?obef refeyaunt done . And alllo that thei be fumed at the fame places
thingdest0asathey forfeid for to appere at all tymes at oure sembles for to bere
in*hetown. the charges of the ffyftene or othir charges nedful to the toun
forfeyde . As we ffraunchifed men done And for her mercymentis
fo lofte of record fyne so made or charges of the toun aftir
the cuftome not paied liefull to the maire and bailliffs or her
officers in the fame Jnnes and Shoppes or in other places
within the toun her goodes and Qatellis so diftreyne and to
with holde aftir the cuftom of the toun tylle the tyme that the
be payed of her Am9cymentis or dutees fo beyng be hynde
242 William Russhden was mayor of the town in 1447-8, and 1455-6.
243 Thomas Sale in 1442-3, 1423-4, i432'3» and J433-4-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
275
ORDINACO FACT p MAIORIBUS
NON EXISTENT BURGENSIBZ
PLIAMENT TEMPE
JOHIS SPRIGY MAIORIS
ANNO H vju xv°
CUM Jofies Sprygy Maior
Norhampton In Ecclia Sci Egidij
ville pdce die lune px poft feftum
Sci Bartfti apH Anno r r Henrici
fexti poft conqm quintodecimo
colloquim gen9ale Xpi [Christi]
fauente gra cum fuis viginti &
quatuor Comburgenfib} & coitate
ville pdce illic iniri ordinaflet
certis & neceflarijs cauiis p vtili-
tate ville pdce p9fatum maiorem
vrgentib} . Prouifum & ordinatum
exiftit in? ce?a tarn ex concenfu &
affenfu jldict Maioris & viginti
& quatuor Comburg pdco£ qm
dee Coitatis ville Norht face .
petitione fpeciali ex pte Coitatis
pdce rbm preuia & defidera? .
Videlt qd quilt Maior ville Nor-
hampton qui officiu Maioratus
ville pdce p vnu annu integrum
ocupauit & eundm Annu plena?
compleuit .
ORDINANCE MADE FOR MAYORS
NOT BEING BURGESSES
IN THE TIME OF PARLIAMENT.
JOHN SPRIGY 344 MAYOR IN
THE I5TH YEAR OF HENRY VI
When John Sprygy mayor [Folio 48a.]
of Northampton in the church of
S* Giles of the town aforesaid on
Monday next after the feast of
S* Bartholomew the Apostle
[Monday, 26th August, 1437] in
the 1 5th year of the reign of
King Henry the Sixth after the
Conquest had ordered a general
conference to be there entered
upon by the gracious favour of
Christ with his 24 fellow-bur-
gesses and the commonalty of
the town aforesaid certain and
necessary reasons for the advan-
tage of the town aforesaid the
aforesaid mayor urging It was
provided and ordained among
other things thereto leading the
way and desired as well by the
consent and assent of the afore-
said mayor and the 24 fellow
burgesses aforesaid as at the
special petition of the said corn-
No ma that
monalty of the tOWn Of North- hath ben maior
lhal be maior
ampton aforesaid on the part of wtin viJ yeres-
the commonalty aforesaid Viz.,
that every mayor of the town of
Northampton who shall have
occupied the office of mayor of
the town aforesaid for one whole
year and shall have fully com-
pleted the same year Hencefor-
244 John Sprigy was mayor of the town in 1425-6, 1426-7, 1428-9, and 1436-7.
T 2
276
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Dece?o non sic in jldci maioratus
officium electus neq} denuo in
electione pofitus vfq3 in finem
feptem Anno^ extunc px fequen?
& plena? Complete^ Quequidem
ordinaco & infti? in Colloquio jldco
in? jlfa? Maiorem Comburgens &
Coitatem diligent tractat atq}
sagaci et mutuo confilio in? eofdm
difcufla ftabilita & ratificata rbm
pmanereconfiftunt. atq} in Regiftro
Cur ville Norhampton in? ce?a
memoranda Regiftrata temporib}
ppetuis duratur &c
ward [shall] not so [be] elected1
to the office of the aforesaid
mayoralty nor again put in
election up to the end of seven
years then next following and
fully completed Which ordinance
and institution in the conference
aforesaid between the aforesaid
mayor fellow - burgesses and
commonalty being diligently
treated and with wise and
mutual counsel between them
discussed established and ratified
there they agree that it shall be
permanent and being registered
in the register of the court of
the town of Northampton among
other memoranda shall endure
for ever &c
[Folio 48b.] ORDINACO FACT TEMPE
JOHIS BALDESWELL MAIORIS
ANNO RR H vju xx°
P SECRETO CONSILIO MAIORIS
Memorandum qd die lune pi
Nota Ante feflum See Margarete virgin
h v ba' Anno regni Regis Henrici fexti
poft conqm vicefimo Ad hufteng
ten? in Guyhald ville Norhampton
p difcreffionem & confiliu Jonis
Baldefwell tune ita Maioris
Rofcti
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME
OF JOHN BALDESWELL 345
MAYOR IN THE 20TH YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VI
FOR THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF THE
MAYOR.
Memorandum that on Monday
[i6th July, 1442] next before the
feast of S* Margaret the Virgin
in the 2oth year of the reign of
King Henry the Sixth after the
Conquest at a Hustings held at
the Guildhall of the town of
Northampton by the discretion
and counsel of John Baldeswell
then mayor of the same Robert
John Baldeswell was mayor of the town in 1441-2.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
277
Tanfield Recorda? Wifti Ruffli-
den sen Henric Stones Jonis Han-
cok Wifti Ruffhden jun Ac alio£
qm plurimo^ de viginti quatuor
comburgenfib} fuis in domo confu-
lari it»m in? ce?a concordat eft &
ftabilitum qd si Aliquis de viginti
quatuor comburg vel Aliquis
Alius tarn ad confilium Maioris
qm ad secretu confiliu dee ville
Norhampton Adiura?fcandali3auit
vel Alicui narrauerit quoquomodo
Aliquam rem vel aliquam cauiam
in? eos adinuicem cdicatam in
Aliquo fecreto cofilio seu aliquod
verbum in dco fecreto conlilio
pba? siue dictu Et fup hoc conuic-
tus f uit coram maiore & fuo confilio
. Prima vice incurrat penam xls .
soluendf ad vfum & pficiu cam9e
dee ville fine Aliquapdonat5e . Et
fi fcda vice de eodfn conuictus fuit
coram maiore et fuo' confilio in-
currat fili? penam Centum solido^
soluendf ad vfum & pficium
cam9e dee ville fine aliqua pdon-
atoe . Et vltra ad expellendf &
deprivandf eum qui tali? deli-
querit . A dco confilio maioris
Acetiam a fecreto confilio dee
ville Norhampton quoufq} Maior
dee ville Norhampton qui p temp
Tanfield recorder William Russh-
den Senr Henry Stones John
Hancock William Russhden Junr
and many others of their 24
fellow-burgesses in the Council-
house there among other things
it was agreed and established
that if any one of the 24 fellow-
burgesses or any other person
sworn as well to the council of
the mayor as to the privy council
of the said town of Northampton
shall have spread abroad or told
to anyone in any way any matter
or any cause communicated
amongst them mutually in any
privy council or any word in the NO counfayier
. , . . open the coun-
said privy council tried or spoken ^iii of the
J maior.
And shall have been convicted
of this before the mayor and his
council The first time shall
incur a penalty of 405. to be paid
to the use and profit -of the
chamber of the said town without
any pardon And if a second
time he shall have been convicted
of the same before the Mayor
and his council he shall in like [Folio 49a.]
manner incur a penalty of loos.
to be paid to the use and profit
of the chamber of the said town
without any pardon And besides
to the expelling and depriving
him who shall have committed
such delinquency from the said
council of the mayor and also
from the privy council of the
said town of Northampton until
the mayor of the said town of
Northampton for the time being
278
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
fait p difcretionem & Auifiamentu
fui confilij melius Auifia? fuit &c
by the discretion and advice of
his council shall have been better
advised &c
[Folio 49b.]
ORDINACO FACT ARTIS Cissox
TEMPE THOME DERAUNT
MAIORIS ANNO RR H vjtj
VNIU9SIS XPI FFIDELIBZ hoc
prelens fcriptum indentatum in-
fpecturis vifuris vel audituris
Thomas Derauut maior ville
Norhampton Ac viginti quatuor
Comburgenfes sui sibi iurati Saltm
in dno iempi?nam Cum in con-
filio gen9ali dee ville Norhampton
rbm tent die lune px poft feftum
Sci Andree api Anno regni
Regis Henrici fexti poft conqm
viceiimo ?tio p quandam petition-
em p bilam eis appofitam & monf-
tratam p c5i pficuo & honeftate
dee ville in fe continentem qd cum
ars Ciilbris in dca villa vbi gen9ofi
& alij ligei din Regis qm plurimi
p aptatione veftfn fua£ & fuo£ s9-
uientu ac li"bta£ fua^ in dies con-
fluant ad eandem nulla . tamen
ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE
CRAFT OF TAILORS IN THE TIME
OF THOMAS DERAUNT 24&
MAYOR IN THE YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VL
To all the faithful of Christ
who shall inspect see or hear
this present indented writing
Thomas Deraunt mayor of the
town of Northampton and his
24 fellow-burgesses sworn to
him Health in the Lord ever-
lasting Whereas in a general
Council of the said town of
Northampton there holden on
Monday [yth December, 1444]
next after the feast of S*. Andrew
the Apostle in the 23rd year of
the reign of Henry the Sixth
after the Conquest by a certain
petition by bill submitted and
shown to them for the common
profit and honesty of the said
town containing in itself that
whereas the craft of tailors in
the said town where gentlemen
and other lieges of the Lord
King many in number for the
fitting of their clothes and those
of their menservants and maid-
servants from day to day betake
themselves to the same but yet
246 Thomas Deraunt was mayor of the town in 1444-5-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
279
regla fiue ordo pofita conftat in
dicta arte in? artifices miniftros
q3 artis illius . Sed qd quit eo£
ita grandem & habilem reputat
se magrm ficut & alium . Qua
ppter multociens dci gen9oii diufi
q3 ligei dm Regis p in habili ap-
tacione funt in? dum de?iorati &
decepti in eo£ jliudicm dee q} ville
scandalum & detrimentum . Jd-
circo $dcus Maior & dci Combur-
genles fui ex affenfu Coitatis dicte
ville Volentes in dca arte ordinem
& bonam regulam appon9e & or-
dinare p comodo & honore dee
ville & ad Dei laudem & honorem
imppm duratur Per hoc qd ordo
fiue bona regula dee Artis ifcm
pfectius & fidelius ex9ceatr . hanc
conftitu5em & ordinatoem sub-
fequentes ftatuunt p lege in
dca villa imppm duratur eo qd
p libtates & p^ilegia illis p dum
regem & pgenitores fuos conceffa
& confirmata p que poffunt in?
alia leges in? eos condere p dee
ville regimine conferuandf . Jn
p'mis eligunt & ponut JoRem
Cleyhunger & JoRem Lylie artis
pdce Magros & fupuilbres ac de-
fectuu in eadm correctores
no rule or positive order exists
in the said craft between the
masters and journeymen of that
craft But that each one of them
esteems himself as good and
skilful a master as another
Wherefore oftentimes the said
gentlemen and divers lieges of
the Lord King for unskilful
fitting are sometimes injured and
deceived to their prejudice and
the scandal and loss of the said
town Therefore the aforesaid
mayor and the said fellow-
burgesses of his by the assent
of the commonalty of the said
town wishing in the said craft
to lay down order and good rule
and to ordain [them] to endure
for ever for the advantage and
honour of the said town and to
the praise and honour of God
And by this means that the order
or good rule of the said craft
may be there more perfectly and
faithfully exercised they appoint
this constitution and ordinance
following to endure in the said
town as a law for ever because
that by the liberties and privi-
leges conceded and confirmed to
them by the Lord King and his
progenitors by which they are
able among other things to estab-
lish laws among themselves for
the government of the said town [Folio 5oa']
to be kept First they elect
& set John Cleyhunger & John
Lylie masters and supervisors of
the said craft and correctors of
280
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
p Anno px fequen? . Et qd ipi &
fucceflbres fui neant aulam fuam
in qua po?unt cum velint omnes dic-
tam artem in villa pdca ex9centes
conuocare & convocatos abfentes
punire Et ifom de seipis duos hiuf-
modi magros p anno ab elecione fua
p manfuros elig^e qui Sacramentu
coram Maiore dee ville preftabunt
in confilio gen^ali fideli? occupare
. Et qd poteftatem neant omnes
tranfgreilbres & eo£ defectus ple-
na? corrigendf . Saluo femp qd si
contingat controufiam in? eos
ptiali? fuboriri tenendf illam ad
maiorem in villa jldic? exiftent p
tempe diutatr emandandf . Et ne
punicones nimis grues ponant de-
linquentib} vel pecunia ab eis
voluntar extorqueat in lucrum fuu
pprm conuertendf . Sed emandas
p delictis & alias fumas ab homib}
artis illius iufte cap? in Deilaudem
& eiufdem Artis melioratoem pie
& meritorie put fequitr tribuat &
difponat ac reglam & ordinem in?
eos teneant fequen? . videiit qd
nullus ciflbr
abuses in the same for the year
next following And that they
and their successors may have
their hall in which they shall be
able when they choose to call
together all persons exercising
the said craft in the town afore-
said and to punish those wrho
when called together absent
themselves And there to elect
out of themselves two masters
of this sort to remain for a year
from their election who shall
take an oath before the mayor
of the said town in a general
council to occupy [their office]
faithfully And that they may
have power of fully correcting
all transgressors and their de-
fects. Saving always that if
it shall happen that a dispute
among them should arise it must
be transferred to the mayor in
the town aforesaid for the time
being to be set right And
they must not inflict too heavy
punishments upon delinquents
or deliberately extort money
from them to be applied to their
own proper gain But they
must assign and dispose the
amends for faults and other
sums justly taken from the men
of that craft to the praise of
God and the amelioration of the
same craft piously and duly as
follows and must hold the fol-
lowing rule and order amongst
them namely that no tailor shall
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
28l
teneat Shopam in villa jpdca nee
in fuburbijs eiufdem priufqm p
Magros Artis jldce sciens & hab-
ilis in eadm & fuis morib} p
vtilitate dee ville idoneus fit pro-
batus . Et tune in principio
erecionis Shope fue soluat eifdem
magris scilit quilt extraneus tres
folidos & quatuor denar Et quilt
alius more apprenticij infra villam
pdcam in eadem eruditus viginti
denar quo^ ipi magri medietatem
majori & cdi s9uienti ville $dce
ad vfum proficium eo^dem Maioris
et Coitatis li"babunt . Ac aliam me-
dietatem eifdiri magris retinebunt
p coib} neceffarijs & negotijs
eiufdem artis . Ac ad fuftentationis
fra?nitatis Sci Johis Baptifte &
luminis circa Eukarifliam in Ecclia
Omi Sco£ NorRt expendendf . Et
qd nullus CifTor teneat cam9am in
Jdca villa nee I fuis furburbijs jit
qm p fui ipius ac vx9is & puo^
have a shop in the town
aforesaid or in the suburbs of
the same before he be approved
by the masters of the craft
aforesaid learned and skilful in [Folio gob.]
it and by his character fit for the
utility of the said town And
then at the beginning of the
erection of his shop he shall
pay to the same masters that
is to say every stranger three
shillings and four pence And
every other person trained in
the manner of an apprentice
within the town aforesaid in
the same twenty pence whereof
the masters themselves shall
deliver a moiety to the mayor
and common serjeant of the
town aforesaid to the use [and]
profit of the same mayor and
commonalty And the other
moiety they shall retain to the
same masters for the common
necessities and businesses of the
same craft and to be expended
for the sustentation of the
fraternity of S* John the Baptist
and of the light about the Eu-
charist in the Church of All
Saints247 at Northampton And
that no tailor shall have a
chamber in the aforesaid town
or in its suburbs except for the
making of his own private
247 All Saints' church was, and still is, the principal church in the town. The
Hospital of St. John Baptist was founded in 1137; the remains of the buildings
are in Bridge Street.
282
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pprijs veftib} confuendf.
Et fi aliquis Ciller repiaf in hoc
delinquens p moderatam mlam p
deos magros aut maiorem vt ipfertr
affedendf . Et in vfib} neceflarijs
pdcis equali? diuidendf . donee
huiufmodi cam^arn amiferit cafti-
getr . Et qd omnes impof?um ad-
uenientes Ciffores artis $dce infra
villam Norhampton in Confres
dee ffranitatis Sci JoRis Baptifte
p Magros artis fupradce fmt re-
cepti pari? & iurati ad fubeundm
ordinatoib} & conftitutonib} eiuf-
[Foiio jia.] dem ffra?nitatis & ad soluendf
quartagia fua & alia on9a eidem
ffra?nitati de conf^rib} eiusdem
exconfuetudine debita Jn cuius
rei teftimonium pti huius Scripti
indentati penes Magros artis
jpdcte remanenti . Tarn figillum
Coe ^dce ville Norhampton qm
Sigillum officij maioratus eiufdem
ville funt appens . Alta vero ps
eiufdem fcripti indentati penes
$dcos maiorem & xxiiij01 Combur-
genf in Coi Cifta eiufdem ville in?
cetas euidencias imppm cuftodiend
fub figillis dco^ Joliis Cleyhunger
& JoRis Lylye mago£
clothes and those of his wife
and sons And if any tailor be
found a delinquent herein he
must be punished by a moderate
penalty to be assessed by the
said masters or mayors as is
said before and to be equally
divided in the necessary uses
aforesaid until he shall have got
rid of a chamber of this sort
And that all tailors of the craft
aforesaid hereafter coming with-
in the town of Northampton
shall be received on equal terms
among the brethren of the said
fraternity of S* John the Bap-
tist by the masters of the
craft aforesaid and be sworn to
submit to the ordinances and
customs of the same fraternity
and to pay their quarterages
and other charges customarily
due to the same fraternity from
the brethren of the same In
testimony whereof to the part
of this indented writing re-
maining with the masters of
the craft aforesaid the common
seal of the aforesaid town of
Northampton as well as the
seal of the office of mayor of
the same town are appended
And the other part of the same
indented writing under the seals
of the said John Cleyhunger &
John Lylye the masters afore-
said remains and is consigned to
be kept by the aforesaid mayor
and 24 fellow-burgesses in the
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
J]dco£ refidet configna? . Da? Nor-
hampton vicefimo die Menfis
Auguftij . Anno regni Regis
Henrici sexti poft conqueflum
vicefimo tertio &c
common chest of the same town
among other evidences for ever
Dated at Northampton on the
2oth day of the month of August
[Friday, 2oth August, 1445] in
the 23rd year of the reign of
King Henry the Sixth after the
Conquest &c
Henricus dei gra Rex Anglie
& ffrancie & dominus Hifcnie
Omnib} ad quos jlfentes litte pue-
nint Saltfn Jnfpexim8 quandam
petitionem nobis in pfenti parlia-
mento nro p coitatem regni nri
Angi in eodem parliament© ex-
ifteri p Maiore & Coitate ville nre
Norhamptoii exhibi? in hec v9ba
Priount les Mair & Coialte de la
ville de Norhampton q pleafe a
les dit} ?fages cones deprier a Roi
nre ?fouain f9rdordiner &gauntier
p alien des f9rs spuelx & temp-
orelx & tout} les dit} C5es a ceft
$fent plement aifemble} ac les dit}
Mair & Coialte & a lour succef-
fors a tout} iors q le Mair de dee
ville qoreft & chefcun Mair de
melme la ville a$s pur le temps
efteant prra loiament compeller &
conflrein chelcun pibne de quele
eftat ou condicion q il soit q eft
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to all to whom
these present letters shall come
greeting We have inspected a
certain petition exhibited to us
in our present parliament by the
commonalty of our Kingdom of [Folio s,b<-,
England in the same parliament
existing for the mayor and com-
monalty of our town of North-
ampton in these words
The mayor and commonalty of
the town of Northampton pray
that it may please the said most
learned commons to pray the
king our most sovereign lord to
ordain and grant by the assent
of the lords spiritual and tem-
poral and all the said commons
at this present parliament as-
sembled to the said mayor and
commonalty and their successors
for ever that the mayor of the
said town that now is and each
mayor of the same town after-
wards for the time being may
lawfully compel and constrain
every person of what estate or
condition he may be that is
284
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
seifi dafcuny mees ou tent on son
demefne come de franc tent buttant
sur afcun haut chemyn ou Rue du
dee ville pur nouelment pauer &
aps tout temps bullbnable re-
pareler ceft affauer du le frount
du tiel mees ou tent iefq3 al my
del chanell du tiel chemyn ou Rue
& en laydur du lune corner du
tiel mees ou tent iefq} a lautre
Corner du mefme le mees Et q le
Mair dee de ville pr le temps efteant
qunt il veye q meftier srra . enqu-
erge p enquefl des bones & loialx
gent3 de mefme la ville de ceux que
soient defectiues de la reparacion
[Folio saa.] aunt dee & sur ceo face garn9 les
dit} defectours defair lour dee re-
reparacion Et afcun pfone efteant
seifi en afcun mees ou tent en la
fourme auant dee deins la dee
ville & il ou son fermour en sa
abfence soit garny p le Mair du
dee ville pr le temps efteant pur
nouelment pauer ou repareler en
temps buffonable enus son mees
ou tent en le man9 suifdit & ne
paue mye nouelment ne repareler
deins trois moys ajps tiel garniffe-
ment fait qadonqes bien life a le
Mair du dit ville pr le temps
efteant p lauctorite suifdit a
diftremer & suffi? . diftreffe
seized of any messuage or tene-
ment in his demesne as of free-
hold abutting on any high road
or street of the said town to
pave anew and afterwrards at all
times needful to repair that
is to say from the front of
such messuage or tenement as
far as the middle of the channel
of such road or street and in
width from the one corner of
such messuage or tenement as
far as the other corner of the
same messuage And that the
mayor of the said town for the
time being when he perceives
that it is needful shall enquire
by the quest of good and loyal
folk of the same town concerning
those which are defective of
repair as aforesaid and on that
to cause to summon the said
defaulters to make their said
repairs And each person being
seized of any messuage or tene-
ment in the form before said
within the said town of and he or
his tenant in his absence being
warned by the mayor of the said
town for the time being to pave
anew or repair in times needful
about his messuage or tenement
in manner abovesaid and does
not pave newly to the middle nor
repair within three months after
such warning allowed then it
shall be lawful for the mayor of
the said town for the time being
by the authority abovesaid to
distrain and sufficient distress to
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
285
retainer iefq3 a taunt q tiel pament
soit nouelment fait ou reparelle
ou au?ment q adonqes bien life a
le Mair du dee [ville] pr le temps
efleant p mefme lauctorite pur
defender la rent du tiel mees ou
tent en les mains de le fermour du
tiel mees ou tent & cell rent iflint
defendu loialment leuer & pndre
& oueiq mefme le rent faire ou
repareler tiel pament come de-
uaunt eft dit . Jn fpexim3 etiam
indorfamentum eiufdem petitois
in eodm parliamento nro fcm in
hec v9ba Soit fait come il eft defire
pr les hautes chemyns & rues du
dee ville enfuant} ceftaffauoir pur
les hautes chemyns de porte du
dee ville en le North tanqal pount
appelle Seint Thomas Brigge en
le South & pur la chemyn del
porte en le Weft tanq a la porte
en le Efte & auxi pur les rues
appelle} Berewardeftrete Seint
Gileftrete Swynwelftrete Kyngef-
welleftrete Seint Mariftrete Seint
Martynftrete & le chemyn appelle
le Marketplace Jffint q nully qi
ad afcun mees ou tent abuttant
au dit chemyn appelle Market-
place ne soit conftreint ou com-
pelle p force de cefte ordinaunce
de faire de nouell ou repairer
afcun pauement en le man9 suif-
dce deunt son dit mees ou tent
enfi abuttant
retain until that such pavement
shall be newly made or repaired
or otherwise that then it shall be
very lawful for the mayor of the
said [town] for the time being
by the same authority to restrain
the rent of such messuage or tene-
ment in the hands of the tenant
of such messuage or tenement
and such rent thus restrained
lawfully to raise and take and
also with the same rent to make
or repair such pavement as be-
fore is said We have likewise
inspected the endorsement of the
same petition made in this our
parliament in these words Let
it be done as is desired for the
high roads and streets of the said
town following that is to say for
the high roads from the gate of
the said town in the North as [Folio
far as the bridge called Saint
Thomas' Bridge in the South and
for the road from the gate in the
West as far as the gate in the
East and also for the streets
called Bereward street Saint
Giles' street Swynwell street
Kingswell street Saint Mary's
street Saint Martin's street and
the road called the Market place
So that no one who has any
messuage or tenement abutting
on the said road called Market
place shall be constrained nor
compelled by force of this
ordinance to make anew or re-
pair any pavement in the manner
abovesaid before his said mes-
suage or tenement thus abutting
286
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
{Folio $3a.]
sur la dee marketplace outre xxx
pees en longure del frount de son
dit mees ou tent et q le remenant
de mefme le Market place soit
pauee & repairee del c5e coftage
de tout la ville deinfdce . Nosautem
tenores petitionis & dorfamenti
jldco£ ad requifitonem Maioris &
Coitatis ville nre jpdce tenore $-
fen?m duximus exemplificand . Jn
cuius rei teftim5iu has Iras nras
fieri fecimus patentes Teft Humfr
Duce Glouceftr Cuftode Angl
apud Weftmonaft^ium xviij die
Marcij Anno regni nri nono
Preftwyk.
Henricus Dei gra Rex Anglie &
ffrancie & Dominus Hifcnie Om-
nib) ad quos pfentes ire puen^int
saltm Jn Ipexim8 quandam pe-
titionem nofo in jlfenti parlia-
mento nro p C5itatem regni nri
Angi in eodem parliamentoexiftefi
p maiore & Cditate ville nre Nor-
hampton exhibi? in hec v9ba.
on the said Market place over
thirty feet in length from the
front of his said messuage or
tenement and that the remainder
of the said Market place shall
be paved and repaired at the
common cost of the whole town
aforesaid We have moreover
at the request of the mayor and
commonalty of our town afore-
said caused to be now drawn
up this transcript of the petition
and endorsement aforesaid held
by the tenor of these presents In
witness whereof we have caused
these our letters to be made patent
Witness Humphrey 248 Duke of
Gloucester Guardian of Eng-
land at Westminster the i8th
day of March [Fifth Sunday in
Lent, 1 8th March, 1431 249] in the
ninth year of our reign
Prestwyk
Henry by the grace of God
king of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to all to whom
these present letters shall come
Greeting We have inspected a
certain petition exhibited to us
in our present parliament by the
commonalty of our kingdom of
England in the same parliament
existing for the mayor and com-
monalty of our town of North-
ampton in these words
248 « Humphfrey de Lancaster," the fourth son of Henry IV., became Guardian
and Lieutenant of England in 1417, and Constable of Rockingham Castle in 1437.
He died in 1446.
249 In the exemplification of this Act, now with the muniments of the borough,
hereinbefore mentioned on page 74, the date 1430 originally indorsed was incorrect.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM
287
The Maire and Comynalte of the town of Norhampton haue defirid
that it myght pleafe the kyngis grace to ordeyn and graunt by
thaffent of the lordes fpuell and Tempall and all the Comyns at
the jlfent parliament airembled . To the Maire and C5ialte and to
their succeflbures for eu . That the Maire of the fame town that now
is And euy Maire of the fame Town aftir for the tyme beyng May
lawfully compelle & conftrayn euy parfone of what eftate or condycion
he be of . Which is seafed of any mefe or Tent in his demene as of
ffree holde buttyng vppon any hye waye of the kynge of the fame
Town to pave newe And aftir at all tymes nedefull repayre . That is
to fey ffrom the ffronte of the fame Mefe or Tent vnto the mydis
or the Chanell of the faide highe wey . And in brede from the oon
Corner of the howfe vnto that other . And that the maire of the
town for the tyme beyng when nede fhall require lhall enquer by
an queft of good and lawfull folkis of the fame town of them that
byn defectyve of their Repacion aforfaide And vppon that to Warne
the fame defectours to make the repacon . And if any pfone fo fo CFolio ssM
beyng leafed of any Meef or Tent in the forme Aforefeide within
the faide Town . And he or his ffermour in his Abfence be warnyd
by the maior of the fame town for the tyme beyng To pave and
repaire the pawment in tyme of nede Ayen theire owne meef or tent
in man9 Abouefaide . And wilnot make Reparacion w*in iij Monythes
aftir this warnyng hadde That than it fhalbe lefull to the Maire
for the tyme beyng by the Auctorite abouefaide to diftreyn that
diftreife to with holde till fuche tyme As the fame pawment be Offorthpeaftyrefes
fuffyciently repaired & made . Or ellis that the Maire by the fame
Auctorite may Reftreyn and kepe the Rent of the fame meef or
tent And with the fame rent to repayre fufficiently the same paw-
ment . Jn like man9 it was graunted for theife highe weyes . That is
to fey from the North yate vnto Seynt Thomas Brygge . And from the
Wefte yate vnto the Eft yate . And allfo Berwardftrete Seint Gyles
tfrete Swynwellftrete Kyngefwellftrete Seint Mary ftrete Seint Martyn
flrete . And the wey called the Merket place . So that noo man that
haue eny meef or tent buttyng vppon the Highe Wey called the [Folio $4a.]
Merket place be not conftreyned nor compeled be the force of this
fame ordeynaunce to make newe or repaire any pawment in the
maner Abouefeide Affore his meef or tent soo Abuttyng vppon the
feide m9ket place by yonde xxx11 fote of lenght from the frount of the
fame meef or tent . And that the Remnaunt of the fame merket place
be paved & repayred of the Cdmen cofte of the toun Afforfeide
288
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Nos autem tenores petitionis & in
dorfamenti jpdco^ ad requifitonem
Maioris & Coitatis ville nri pdce
tenore jllentm duxim8 exemplifi-
candf Jn cuius rei teftimoniu
hasiras nras fieri fecimus patentes
Tefte Humf reduce Glouceftr Cui-
tode Angi apud Westm xviij die
Marcij Anno regni nri nono
Preftwyk
Ex'pWiftm Preftwik
& Thomam Hafeley Ciicos
[Folio s4b.] Quia Maioris Ville Norhampton
in Offic Maioratus eo£ ad grues
expens & cuftus indies deducunt*
iuxta illo£ feoda illis Alloca? &
afligna? p Anno fui officij que
quidem feod conftant de c9to put
ex antique tempor9 plene patet .
Hinc eft Memorand qd die Ven9is
px ante feftum Sci Dionifij mris
Anno rr Henrici sexti poft con-
queftum xxvij0 Ad colloqium ten?
in Guyhald ifcm Gilberto Litftere
eiufdem ville Maior Ac Jofce Peny
& Witimo Grene tune i'bm baftis
We have moreover at the request
of the mayor and commonalty of
our town aforesaid caused to be
now drawn up this transcript of
the petition and endorsement
aforesaid heldbythetenorof these
presents In witness whereof we
cause these our letters to be made
patent Witness Humfrey Duke
of Gloucester Guardian of Eng-
land at Westminster the i8th
day of March [Fifth Sunday in
Lent, 1 8th March, 1431] in the
ninth year of our reign
Prestwyk
Drawn out by William Prest-
wick and Thomas Haseley Clerks
Whereas the mayors of the town
of Northampton in their office of
mayor are daily led into grievous
expenses and costs beyond their
fees allotted and assigned to
them for the year of their office
which fees are fixed without
change as from ancient time is
quite clear therefore it is to be
remembered that on Friday [4th
October, 1448] next before the
feast of S*. Denys the martyr in
the 27th year of the reign of
King Henry the Sixth after the
Conquest At a conference holden
in the Guildhall there Gilbert
Litstere 25° being mayor of the
same town and John Peny and
William Grene then bailiffs there
250 Gilbert Litstere, Lyster, or Lycester, was mayor of the town in 1448-9, and
1457-8. Gilbert Littlester was one of the members for the town at the parliament
held 25th Henry VI.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
289
ordinatum tune exiftit & puifum
ex om conlenfu tune. it>min?elTentm
qui vnanimes pure & fponte con-
celferut qd antiqua confuetudo
maio^ ville Norhampton que semp
foluta non ftetit 53 semp ad hue
pfeuan? firma & ftabilita pmanlit
cuius p^cipij memoria non con-
flat de recordo . videlt qd omnes
Burgenfes maiores ville Norhamp-
ton qui poflqin Officfn Maioratus
sui singli p Anno pimpleuint
& artem Brafmalem in Domib3
suis occupar . intendunt & fre-
quentar . Non amplius arceantr
neq3 compellantr baftis dee ville
Norftt p tempe exiftent neq3 suc-
cerTorib3 mis aliquam fumam pe-
cunie arti pdce spectant9 omo
folue. neq3 teneantr vigilas sine
excubias eltiuales fme Autup-
tales scdfn ordinatm pdcm obi uar
neq3 penitus cuftodir sed inde femp
lint quieti tempof p futur
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE
GlLBERTI LlCESTER MAIORIS P
PORCIS CIRCUVAGANTIZ I VILLA
Ad congregatoem gen^alem
habi? & ten? in Ecciia sci
it is ordained and provided by
the consent of all then and there
present who unanimously rightly
and voluntarily agreed that the
ancient custom of the mayors of
the town of Northampton which
has never been dissolved but
always up to this time has
remained surely firm and estab-
lished the memory of the be-
ginning of which is not on
record namely that all burgesses
mayors of the town of North-
ampton who after they have
severally discharged the office £amy^°
of their mayoralty for a year ^ewfn
and intend to practise and con- kepe w
tinue the art of Brewing in their
houses shall no more be obliged
or compelled to pay at all any
sum of money pertaining to the
art aforesaid to the bailiffs of the
said town of Northampton for
the time being or their suc-
cessors nor shall they be held to
observe watches or guards in the
summer or autumn according to
the ordinance aforesaid nor to
keep inner watch but shall ever
be quit of that for future time
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE
TIME OF GILBERT LICESTER 251
MAYOR FOR PIGS THAT
ROAM ABOUT IN THE TOWN
At a general congregation had
, , ,j - ^ %u u r cf [Folio
and holden in the Church ot b*
nor
tche
251 Gilbert Licester, Lyster, or Lycester, was mayor of the town in 1448-9, and
1457-8. Gilbert Littlester was one of the members for the town at the parliament held
25th Henry VI.
U
2go
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Egidij ville Norhampton die i3-
curij px ante feftum sci Dionifij
mris Anno r r Henrici fexti poft
conqueftumTricefimo sexto tempe
Gilfcti Liftere maioris p eius ex-
imiam difcretionem et totius
Coitatis Aflenfum ordinatum con-
ftitu? & ftabili? exiftit .Quod nullus
homo nee femina dimitteret por-
cos fuos in plateisvicis seu venillis
infra villam ire Et si aliquis in-
uentus fait tranfgreffor p talib3
porcis conta ordinatoem iftam ita
circum vagantib} qd tune foluat
ad primam captoem Camarijs ville
Norhampton p quolifct porco sic
capt9 iiijd . Et si sepius p dcos
Cam9arios capiant9 qd tune diet9
porci vendantr ad pficium Cam9e
ville pnotate nili infra quatuor
dies extunc px sequent9 tales
poffeffores porco^ ita capto^ ag-
greauit cum Campari] s p tempe
exiftent9 Ac diet9 ordinaco imppm
duratur .
Giles in the town of Northampton
on Wednesday [5th October, 1457]
next before the feast of S* Denys
the martyr in the 36th year of the
reign of King Henry the Sixth
after the Conquest in the time of
Gilbert Lycester Mayor by his
excellent discretion and the as-
sent of the whole commonalty
it is ordained constituted and
established that no man nor
woman shall let his or her pigs
go in the streets roads or lanes
within the town And if any
shall be found a transgressor
for such pigs contrary to this
ordinance so roaming about that
then he shall pay for the first
capture to the chamberlains of
the town of Northampton for
every pig so taken 4d And if
often by the said chamberlains
they be taken that then the said
pigs shall be sold to the profit
of the chamber of the town be-
fore named unless within four
days then next following such
owners of pigs so taken agree
with the chamberlains for the
time being And the said or-
dinance to endure for ever
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE THOME BRAFELD MAIORIS A° R R H
vjti xxxj° PRO ARTE FFULLORUM CAP°
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF THOMAS BRAFELD252 IN
THE 3IST YEAR OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VI FOR THE
CRAFT OF FULLERS CHAPTER.]
At the Cofnyn semble holden in the Chirche of Seint Gyle in
268 Thomas Brafeld, or Brafield, was mayor of the town in 1452-3.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2QI
toun of Norhampton the Wedoneyfday [nth October 1452] next
aftir Seynt Denys day in the yere of kyng Henry Abovenfeide
by the Alfent of the feide Maire his xxiiij Comburge} and all the CFolio ssb']
Cominalte of the feide toun ther being is Accorded And ppetually
to endure . ffirfte that is to fey that the Mair of the feide town by the
Auctorite of the kyng to him commytted charge the houfholders
of the feide ffullerfcrafte to Aflemble and comyne to gedyr e3y yere
cones vppon Seint Thomas day the Appoftell [2ist December] at
the ffrer prechos 25S in the feide toun . Ther to chefe ij sufficiante
pfones of the fame crafte to be ferchers ther of for the yere fol-
lowing . And ij wardens maiftres of the fame crafte to ferche and
correcte as well the warkmanfhip of the feide ferchers as all other
defautes in the fame crafte And that afwell the seide . ij . maiftres
as the . ij . serchers so chofen at the next huftyng day after the
feide election apper in the Gyldehall of the feide toun Affor the
Mair for the tyme beyng There to be fworne that the feide . ij .
maifters dewly fhall serche and correcte the warkmanfhip of the
feide . ij . ferchers . And the fame . ij . serchers . thre dayes or too
dayes at the lefte euy weke mail serche thorowe the feide crafte
All man9 defautes deceytes and hurtes therof . And theym duly
and Juftely withoute fauour or hate punyfhe and correcte be fuche CFolio S6a.]
fynes as fhalbe thou3t to the feide maifters refonable for the feide
offens by the aflent and oufight of the Maire for the tyme beyng.
And that euy houfholder of the feide crafte beyng in the seide
town at the feide day of elleccion be there pfent in the fame
femble vppon the payne of . ij . ii . wax or the price therof to the
feide craft to be paied but if he be feke or haue any other refon-
able caufe of lette . And if the feide . ij . serchers be necligent and
execute not dewly their feide ferche in man9 and forme aforefeide.
the feide maifters to fette hem at fuche fyne as they mull feme
refonable for euy offence be the oufight of the maire for the tyme
beyng . And that noo ffuller occupying the feid crafte bere nor
delyu eny cloth be hym wrought oute of his gounaunce vnto fuche
tyme at it be fene serched and proved be the feide serchers vppon
payne of . xij d . to be paied to the feide crafte as often as eny is
in that defaute . And if the owner of any fuche clothe so delyued
not ferched nor proved compleyn and fhewe to the feide maifters
253 The house of the Black Friars or Friars Preachers, was situate in the Horse-
market, Northampton. It appears to have been founded about 1240.
U 2
2Q2 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
for the tyme beyng of any hurte or defaute in werkmanftiip . Then the
feide maifters to fette hym that fo delyued it atte fuche fyne as fhall
[Folio s6b.] feeme to hem refonable by the Affent and oufight of the mayer for
the tyme beyng . And if the seide serchers fynde and preve greate
defaulte of non habylite of stuff & conyng in warkmanlhip to haue
rewle and kepyng the charge of mennys good of clothemakyng in
eny ffuller of the feide crafte . That thei haue power to difcharge
hym of the feide occupacion in the feide toun , fuche caufe refon-
able ihewed . and proved afore the Mayre for the tyme beyng And
that the forfaiture of all fuche fynes Abouefeid may be difpofed
and put the oon halfe of hem to be delyued to the Maire for tyme
beyng as comen trefoure to the feide toun And the tother halfe
of the fame fuftenaunce of thre tapres in the Chyrche of Allhalowen
afore Seint John Baptifte . And for afmyche as the forfaiture of
fuche fynes for offences is but cafuall to the fuftinaunce of the
feide lyght . That it lyke you to ordeyn that eu^y ffuller which has
nott bien Apprentice to the fame crafte in the toun of Norftt by
the terme of . iiij . yere at the lefte trewly ferved and ffullfilled that
fhall sett vp crafte and occupie houfholde in the fame toun may
be proved be the Maifters of the fame crafte fuffycyaunte and able
to occupie and kepe charge and rewle of mennes good affore the
maire for the tyme beyng And to paie to the fuftinaunce of the
[Folio s?a.] feide lightes . vj s . viijd . And to the feid Maire as Comen trefoure
for the toun vjs . viijd at his comyng in and begynnyng . And
yerely aftir duryng his occupation he and euy houfholder of the
fame crafte to fuftentacion of the fame lightes . iiij d . And that euy
ffuller which hath been prentes at the feide crafte in the feide
toun afore this ordeynaunce made or fhalbe at the lefte by the
fpace of iiij yere as it is aforfeide that lhall sett vp crafte and
occupie howfolde in the fame town may be proved by the Maifters of
the faide crafte for the tyme beyng fufficiant and able to occupie and
kepe charge and rewle of menes good afore the Maire for the tyme
beyng . And for to paie to the fuftinaunce of the feide lightes xxd .
And to the feide Maier as comen trefour of the toun xxd . at his
comyng in and begynnyng . And that no houlholder of the feide
crafte vex nor emplede other houfholder of the fame crafte in the
Courte of this toun nor eny other writhoute lefe Afked of the
Maifters for tyme beyng be the fpace of . xv . daies aftir the feide
lefe afked vppon payne of vjs viij d the one halfe therof to the
Maire as comen trefoure of the town And the other halfe to the
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 293
suftinaunce of the feide lightes as is Aforfeide . And if the feide
Maifters do not her trewe diligence and laboure and fette the
pties at ende Within the feid xv daies than the pties to be at
large and fewe aftur the cuftom and vfage of the feide toun. And
that no ffuller of the feide crafte take more for a cloth trewly
wrought for his warkmanfhip of any clothmaker of the feide toun.
nor thei hau takyn of olde tyme for a cloth that was trewly wrought
before this acte made . Jn peyne of the forfeture of all the Articles
conteigened in the ordinance before writen . fiche mater and caufe
founden and proved before the maire for the tyme beyng and his
counfell . And that this peticion and articles Aforefeide may be
enacte and enrolled in this Comoen Semble And the tranfcripte
therof to be delyued be the Mayer to fuche as ben moft fufficiaunt
in the fame crafte enfealed afwell with the feall of the mayeralte
as with the Comoen seall of the fame town ppetually to endure
Provide allwey that the ftatute and ordenaunce afore made take
his begynnyng to Hand in his ftrenght at Seint Thomas day the
Appoftell [2ist December] Aforefeid . And foo from yere to yere
for eu9more to endure as it is Aboven feide Allfo it is ordeyned by
William Peryn254 maier & his Councell ]>e monday next [yth
January, 1454] Aftr Seint Edwardes day the kyng the xxxij" yere
of kyng herry the sixt . That if eny ffuller put out eny cloth to borle
he fhall pay xxd to y town And xxd to ]>• crafte . And if eny ffuller
fet eny jo'neyma Awerke but he haue geven his maiftr due
warnyng he mall pay xijd to ]?e town & xijd to the crafte
TEMPE JOHIS WALK MAIER
J [Foho £8a.]
[IN THE TIME OF JOHN WALKER,255 MAYOR.]
At a hufteng all Court holden in the Guyhald of the town of
Norhampton the mondaie [i7th February, 1516] next by fore the
feft of feint mathie daie thapoftell in the vij yer of kyng
Henr the viijth it is enacted & eftablifihed by John Walker
of the forfeid toun John Wattis John Saxby John Pvyn Thorns
Wellis John Hilton Thorns Peny and Thorns Peny late maiers
of the fame . thorow affent and confent of all the mailers
of fullers Crafte w^n the fame toun that no man of the fame
fullers craftefett Willm Mall fuller awarke nor his Wife nor no
man w* theym
254 William peryn, Perin, or Parrin was mayor of the town in 1443-4, 1453-4,
and 1464-5.
255 John Walker in 1516-7. This ordinance is written by a later hand.
294
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
neyther in myllyng nor inteyn teryng there as the forfeid Willm
Dothe nor in burlyng nor in no wile Company w* the feid willm
mall nor with his wyfe nor he nor his wyfe w* non of the occupa-
con in no tyma to come And if any of the mafters of the feid
occupacon be ou^takyn in any of the forfeid ordenaunce} then he or
the fc ou^takyn (hall lofe at eir°y time xiij s iiij d the one halfe
[Folio ssb.i therof to the maier for the tyme beyng as Comyn Treibur to the
toun & the other halfe to the pfite of the occupacon And if any
Jorneyman Worke w* the feid Willm mall And is ageyne the forfeid
ordinaunce} that then the fame jorneyman to lefe iiij d halfe therof
to the maier & halfe to the Crafte in man9 aforefeid and then that
no matter of that Crafte to occupie that Jo'nman afterward vpon
the forfeid payne &c
s9a.i ORDINACO FACTA P THOMAM
BRAFELDE MAIOREM &
suu CONSILIU P ARTE
ALLUTARIOX ANNO REGNI
REGIS HENRICI vju xxxj°
Jtem ordinatum eft qd nullus
Artifex eiufdem Artis infra villam
pdcm de arte fua Shopam tenens
dece?o teneat nee habeat aliquod
Stallum in mercato dee ville ad
sotulares seu mercandifas Arti
pdci ptinentes vendendf s£ qd
eas tantun ad shopas fuas vendant
et vendere teneant* . Et si aliquis
f^uiens eiufdem Artis ens aut
futurus & effendus Aliquo furto
seu latrocinio detectus fuit & in
eo reus comptus . Qd tune Gar-
diani jldce Artis p tempe exiftentes
jlmunitoem debitam facient mag-
ro dee f^uientis cui f^uierit qd
ORDINANCE MADE BY THOMAS
BRAFELDE256 MAYOR AND HIS
COUNCIL FOR THE CRAFT OF
CORDWAINERS IN THE 3IST
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG
HENRY VI
Also it was ordained that no
craftsman of the same craft hold-
ing within the town aforesaid a
shop for his craft shall hereafter
hold or have any stall in the mar-
ket of the said town to sell shoes
or wares belonging to the craft
aforesaid but they must sell and
be obliged to sell them only at
their shops And if any journey-
man of the same craft now
being or about to be shall
have been detected in any theft
or robbery and in it found guilty
that then the wardens of the
aforesaid craft for the time being
shall give due warning to the
master of the said journeyman
256 Thomas Brafeld, or Brafield, was mayor of the town in 1452-3.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
295
ipm fecum opari non pmittat fub
pena sex solido^ & octo denario^
ad vfum ville jpdce ac luinariu et
torchia^ eiufdem Artis de magro
f9uientis pdci leuandf p maiorem
dee ville qui p tempe fu9it Et
gardianos eiufdem Artis ad tern-
pus exiftentes videiit si jldcm
f9uientem sic reum comptu a
f^uitio fuo poft debitam Jmunito-
nem sibi fact9 non euacuau9it .
vnde vna medietas jldce pene fie
prouife ad vfum Cam9e ville $dce
remanebit Et Alt9a medietas
eiufdem ad vfum luinarium et
torchia^ Artis pdce tociens quo-
ciens Aliquis cafus coniimilis
contigpit infutuf . Et fi aliquis f9-
uiens aut oparius dmrnus acceir9it
ad villam in arte jildca opaturus
& pmanfurus et in eadem arte p
vnu menfem ifom opatus fait qd
tune soluet duos denar luinarib}
et torchijs Artis $dce . Et si diu-
tius expectau9it qd tune soluet
quoiit quart9io Anni vnu denariu
aut magifter eius cui f9uierit p eo
foluet sicut cet9i seruientes Artis
jpdce foluere solent et soluerecon-
fueu9unt duinodo infra villam
pdcam pmanf^it.
to whom he shall be in service
that he do not permit him to
work with him under a penalty
of 6s 8d to the use of the town
aforesaid and the lights and
torches of the same art to be
levied from the master of the
said journeyman by the mayor
of the said town for the time
being and the wardens of the
same craft at the time being
namely if he shall not have dis-
charged the aforesaid journeyman
so found guilty from his service
after due warning given to him
whereof one moiety of the afore-
said penalty so provided shall
remain to the use of the chamber
of the town aforesaid and the
other moiety of the same to the
use of the lights and torches of [Folio
the craft aforesaid as often as
any similar case shall occur in
the future And if any journey-
man or workman by the day
shall come to the town intending
to work in the craft aforesaid and
to stay and in the same craft
shall have worked there for one
month then he shall pay 2d to
the lights and torches of the craft
aforesaid And if he stay longer
that then he shall pay in every
quarter ot the year id or his
master whom he is serving shall
pay for him as the other journey-
men of the craft aforesaid are
accustomed and have been accus-
tomed to pay as long as he shall
remain within the town aforesaid
296
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Et sic de singulis f9uientib} eiuf-
dem artis ad villam |}dcam ad
opandf pfonalit9 accefluris et
venientib} infutur. Et si aliquis
artifex eiufdem Artis impof^um
infra villam jldcam Shopamtenens
aliquod stallum in mercato dee
ville contra formam jlmiffam pof-
uerit ad sotulares seu mercan-
di3as eiufdem artis vendendf. qd
tune soluet viginti denar maiori
ville {Idee qui pro tempe fuit ad
vfum cam9e ville $dce Ac alios vig-
inti denar ad vfum torchia^ et lui-
narm artis $dce Gardiamus (sic)
eiufdem artis p tempe exiftentib}
indilate pfoluendf tociens quo-
ciens sic fec9it seu eo£ aliquis
fec9it in futur Nou9itis nos jliatum
[Folio 6oa.] maiorem ad intimam fupplicacion-
emWiftiGybbes & Jofiis Marchall
Gardiano^ artis pdceac alio£ Artifi-
cum et magro^ pdco£ in hac pte
nobis fact9 pdcas ordinatones in
oinib} vt fup*fcribuntr et recitant1
ex puidia delitiatione nra cum
Aifenfu Confilij nri Comburgenfm
nro^ ^dco^pit9 & confenfu diligent9
infpexiffe plegifle et examinafle
ac eas p nobis & succefforib} nris
in quanto de iure potfumus ratifi-
caffe & confirmaile Ac in Regiflro
memorando^ ville $dce int9 ceteras
diu9fa^ artfn ordinationes regiftrari
And so from each several journey-
men of the said craft that shall
in person approach to work or
come in the future And if any
craftsman of the same craft here-
after within the town aforesaid
who has a shop shall place any
stall in the market of the said town
contrary to the form above set
forth to sell shoes and wares of the
same craft that then he shall pay
2od to the mayor of the town
aforesaid for the time being to
the use of the chamber of the
town aforesaid and other 2od to
the use of the torches and lights of
the craft aforesaid to the wardens
of the same craft for the time being
without delay to be paid as often
as he or any one of them shall do
so in future You must know that
we the aforesaid mayor at the
earnest supplication of Willaim
Gybbes & John Marchall wardens
of the craft aforesaid and of the
other craftsmen and masters afore-
said in this respect made to us have
diligently inspected read through
and examined the aforesaid or-
dinances in all things as are
above written and recited of
our careful deliberation with the
assent likewise and consent of
ourcouncilof ourfellow-burgesses
aforesaid and them for ourselves
and our successors in so far as
we rightly can do so have ratified
and confirmed and have caused
by these presents to be regis-
tered verbatim in the Register of
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 297
verbatim fee ifle p pfentes. Jn cuis things to be remembered of the
rei teftimoniu sigillum nri maiorat- town aforesaid among other ordin-
us officij in maius robur & recor- ances of divers crafts In testimony
dum pmhTo£ p nos pfentib^ eft whereof the seal of our office of
appenfum.Dat9apudNorhampton mayor for the greater confirma-
vicefimo fecundo die mentis No- tion and record of the premisses by
uembris Anno regni Regis Henrici us to these presents is appended
Sexti poft conqm Tricefimo Primo Dated at Northampton on the
Prouifo femp qd fupuifus om Jrnif- 22nd day of the month of Novem-
fo£ vt in aliquo ea non excedant ber [Wednesday, 22nd Novem-
nobis jlfato maiori et succelforib} ber, 1452] in the 3ist year of the
nris remanebit p jlfentes &c reign of King Henry the Sixth
after the Conquest Provided
always that the supervision of
all the premisses that they do not
exceed in any way shall remain
with us the aforesaid mayor and
our successors by the presents
etc
And vppon thees the kyngf comaundement} at oure comoen [Folio 6ob.]
Semble holden in the chyrche of Seynt Gyle in the Town of Nor-
hampton vppon ffrydaye the xxv daie of Maij the yere of the reigne of
oure mofte sou9eign lorde kyng Hen? the syxte xxxviij" [1460] by
the advife of William Auftyn 257 Sqvyer thann Meyr with the affent
of his xxiiij*1 Comburgeffes and all the Coialte of the fame haue or-
deigned enftabeliffhed and affermyd this acte and ordeinaunce folowyng
amonge other vfages and statute} vied withinne the faid Town euer
to endure &c
That is to faye That noo maner man ffraunchefed of what degree
or condicion so euer he be withinne this Town of Norhampton
dwellyng take vppon hym to were eny maner Clothyng or Sygnes
of eny lorde squyer or any other perfone vnfraurichefed excepte
the kyng our fouereign lorde in payne of enprifonement by . xl 3&fc?ma
dayes . And makyng ffyne to the Chaumbre of the faide town . xls fyueryWofrany
at the lefte without eny redempcion . yf his goode} will atteyn therto
as often as eny is founden with fuche defaulte . And the faide
pfone so beyng in prifone there to remayne Aftir the faide . xl .
daies tille haue paied the faide . xls.
257 \yilliam Austyn or Austin was Mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-9, and
1476-7.
298 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
fterlingis or founden sufficiant suerte to paie . xl8 . fterlingf to the
Chaumbre of the faid town. And if the faide pfone so beyng in
[Folio 6ia.] prifone paie not the xls fterlinge nor can fynde noo suerte to paie
thanne the fame pfone to haue emprifonement of xij monethes &c
Jtiii that noo maner man ffaunchefed of the faide town in his
owne pfone goo ryde ne sende ne make eny vnlawfull othes
no ma fran- Promys ne aifuraunce to goo ryde ne to fende eny other pfone for
Svfa^other tne7m with eny lorde knyght squyer or eny other psone without
unfranchifed hit be by the ^yngf comaundement or by lycence of the maier
for the tyme beyng or in affiyftyng of the kyngf officeres in the
kyngf fervice beyng for the tyme vppon the fame peyne &c
Jtfn that the Maier that nowe is of the faide town and euery
maire which fhall succede hym for hys tyme whiche dothe not
due execucion punnyflhement vppon fuche treffpailburs Ageyn theis
oof tyt^fhaH1*4 ^e whicne ben the kynge comaundementf and oure ordenauncej
forfeit And it be founden by his owne knowleche or by one or tweyn
fuche as haue ben in the office of maier of the fame Town or
ellys by due examynacion had by . xij . pfones at the lefte of the
xxiiijtj chieff Burgelfes of the fame. That the maier hadd verray
knowleche of the faide offence} And allfo of the trefpalTour that
[Folio 6ib.i then the faide Maire to be charged of xl8. fterlyngf for eu^y suche
trefpafoure so offendyng to be paied to the Chaumbre of the faide
Towne . Prouided allwey that this Acte and ordinaunce extende
not to eny pfone or pfones suche as the ftatute wyll excufe &c
ORDINACIO FACT PRO LEZ WEVERS
[ORDINANCE MADE FOR WEAVERS]
At the Comyn semble holden in the Chyrche of Seint Gile in
the Towne of Norhampton the Wednefday [6th October, 1462]
next affore the fefte of Seint Dioniiij the martir in the fecounde
yere of kyng Edwarde the iiijth by the Aflent of the faide Maior
and his xxiiiju Comburges and all the Comunalte of the faide Town
ther beyng is Acordid and ppetually to endure
ffyrfte that is to fey that euery pfone that lhall occupie and
set vp the feide Weyverefcrafte within the ffaunchefe of this town
fro this day forwarde may be Abled be the Wardens of the feide
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 2QQ
crafte that he be an Able and sufficiant werkman in the feide
Weiverfcrafte. And Allfoo that he be Abled bye . ij . difcrete plbnes
comburgenfe} of the xxiiij" suche as fhalbe chofyn be the maire
for the tyme beyng and his councell. And the Wardenez of the
feide Weiverfcrafte with hem that he be worthe of his owne propur
goods c.s
And that than he that is so Abled be the feid burgenfe}
and wardenes of the feide crafte to paie to the maire for the tyme
beyng os comyng Trefoure for the town, if that he haue been
prentife within this Town at the feide Weuerfcrafte by the terme
of . vj . yere at the lefte trewly ferved and pformed . xld . And to
the fuftynaunce of the lyghtes and torches of the feide crafte . xld .
At his comyng Jnne and be gynnyng
And he that hath not ben prentife within this town At the
feide crafte be the terme of vj yere at the lefte trewly served and
pformed and is Abled in the forme be fore reherfed to paye to the
maire for the tyme beyng os comonn trefure to the Town . vj8 viijd .
And to the fultynaunce of the lyghtes and torches of the feide
crafte . vj s . viij d At his comyng Jnne and begynnyng .
And alfo that euy howfholder of the feide crafte which nowe [Folio 6ab-]
been & fchull been that he pay his qua?age to oure lady lighte
afwele for hym felfe os for any man whiche fhall wyrke with hym
euy yere before the fefte of Efterne or elles on the Eftronmonday
at the furthefte . And if any pfone be behynde Any yere of the
faide quarterage in parte or in all vnpaid aftir the seide Eftrun
monday be the fpace of Amoneth that than he that is so founden
fawty to be Reftreynyd of occupying of his lomes be the comaunde-
ment of the maire for the tyme beyng vntyll tyme that the crafte
be agreyd and ffully satiffied of suche quarterage so beyng be
hynde . And that he that offendith in any of theis ordynaunce
longyng to the feide crafte mofte be called be fore the maire for
his offence to paye to the officers of the toun all maner charges &
coftes suche os of oolde tyme han been dueed & cuftomed or that
he be delyued . And that this ordinaunce may be enacte at this
tyme at the reuerence of god and in Wey of charyte . To the
whiche enacte J William hayrofe 258 maire of the toun before feide [Folio 63a.]
the seall of the office of the meyralte of the fame town hafe
setto &c .
258 William Hayrose was member for the town of Northampton at the Parlia-
ments held 33rd and 38th Henry VI. ; but his name does not appear amongst the
list of Mayors for the town.
300
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE
WILLI PERYN MAIORIS ANNO R"R
EDWARDI QUARTI TERCIO
Ad colloqum gen9ale ten? in
ecctia Sci Egidij ville Norhamp-
ton die m9curij prox ante feftum
Sci Dionifij matiris Anno rr Ed-
wardi quarti poft conqueftum ter-
cio . Per eximiam diftrefcionem
Wifti Peryn tune Maioris Joftis
Harrys et Wifti Slynde Baftio^
et p avifiamentum ac conlilij
xxiiijor eiufdem ville Combur-
gens cum vnanimi afleniu tocius
coitatis ville jpdce Sequens or-
dinaco et Statutum in Dei omi-
potentis honorem . et ad Salutem
Spualem et corpalem oini Criftiano}
tarn infra dictam villam comor-
ancm qm ad pnoia? villam pue-
niencm . Et $cipue in Sabbata
Conditoris nr ttte eius genitricis
marie orhiq} Cium Scoa celeftm
obf^uando q*tum lex Anglie et
confuetudo ville in se exigunt et
[Folio 63b.] _
requirunt modo edit eft et ftabilit
tempib} in futur duratur put in
lingua nra materna sequitur in
hec verba
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE
TIME OF WILLIAM PERYN 259
MAYOR IN THE THIRD
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG
EDWARD IV
At a general conference holden
in the church of S Giles in the
town of Northampton on Wed-
nesday [5th October, 1463] next
before the feast of S Denys the
martyr in the 3rd year of the
reign of King Edward the Fourth
after the Conquest By the ex-
cellent discretion of William
Peryn then mayor John Harrys
and William Slynde Bailiffs by
the advice and counsel of the 24
fellow - burgesses of the same
town with the unanimous consent
of the commonalty of the town
aforesaid The following ordi-
nance and statute to the honour
of Almighty God and to the
wrelfare spiritual and corporal of
all Christian men both dwelling
within the said town and coming
to the beforenamed town And
especially in observing the fes-
tivals of our Founder of His
Blessed Mother Mary and of all
the holy citizens of heaven as far
as the law of England and the
custom of the towrn demand and
require of them is now set forth
and established to endure for the
times to come as in our mother
tongue follows in these words
259 \yilliam Peryn, Perin, or Parrin was Mayor of the town in 1443-4, 1453-4,
and 1464-5.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
301
That no maner foreyn marchaunt ne Chapman as drapers mer-
cers hoefiers Jrmongers fflaxmen Tanners no non other foreyn
pfone of . what crafte degre or condicion so euer he be that bryngith
eny marchaundile or ware to this toun to be solde . Savyng onely
vitaile take vppon hym nor by coloure of ony other mene pfone m°erc°hant fhew
- . , , IT- . ... no wares but
for them to Ihewe eny such marchaundiie or ware openly in this in his hu to
merchantes of
market ne pVee ni none other place withmne this seide towne the town
vppon any halydaye ne other dale in the Woke but if it be w*inne
his Jnne to A marchaunte or chapman of this lame towne . And to
none other foreyn perlbne in peyne of forfaiture of all suche mar-
chaundife or \vare to the profite of the chaumbr of this feide towne.
As often as eny pfone so vfurpeth or taketh vppon hym into the
Contrary to offende Accordyng to the goode fadde and laudable
Cuflpmes of other Citees and Burghes of this Realme The Satir-
daye euy werke which is the market daye to this toune Affigned
with the iiij feftes of oure lady . And the feft of saint Jame
thappoftle [25th July] euy pfone of goode difpoficion liefully to come [Folio 64a.}
Ihewe and vtter fuche os they or eny of them kan take vppon hym
to vie and occupie to the pleafur of god . And theire owne pfite .
Et quo ad debitam punicoem
liue execucionem iftius ordinaconis
vel ftatuti J^^ati ad pfens
edi? & conftituti mandatum eft
decret9 et det9minatvm vt iftud
ftatutum aut actum scriat1' in
Regeftro Cur ville pdce in? ce?a
Record rbm imppm Remanfur
Necnon huic tranfcripto Sigillum
Cde ville $dce sit appenfum in
Record et teftiom pmiifo^ &c
And to the due punishment
or execution of this ordinance or
statute before delivered it is
now set forth and firmly com-
manded decreed and determined
that that statute or act be written
in the Register of the Court of
the town aforesaid among the
other records there to remain for
ever Moreover to this transcript
the common seal of the town
aforesaid is appended for the
record and testimony of the pre-
misses &c
302 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ORDINACIO FACT TEMPE THOME HUNT MAIORIS ANNO
R R EDWARDI QUARTI QUARTO P ARTE FFULLONU
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF THOMAS HUNT260 MAYOR
IN THE 4TH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG EDWARD THE IV
FOR THE CRAFT OF FULLERS]
Att the comon semble Holden in the Chirche of Seynt
Giles . Thabbot in the Toun of Norhampton the Weddennef-
day [loth October, 1464] in the morne next aftyr the fefte of
Seynt Dinys the martir the iiij te yere of kyng Edwarde the iiij te .
Carders Spynners Weuers ffullers by bylle of supplicacion to
[Folio 640.] Thomas Hunt then Maire of the seide town his ComburgeilTe} and
Comons of the fame for the Weale of all thenhabitaunte} of the feide
towne. That is to sey the Carders Spynners Weuers & ffullers
of this town praien you tendirly to confider that where the kyng
oure gracious liege lord . And his lordis fpuall & tempall by
Auctorite of his high courte of Parliament . holden at Weftmynftre .
the xxixth day of Aprill thyrde yere of his noble Reigne [1463]
have ordeyned fadd and ftraite ftatuter} and ordeynaunceis to be
executed vpon makyng of wollen cloth withine this his Realme
Among the whiche ftatutes and ordinaunceis is laide and sett .
vpon youre feide befechers foo great charge that it is to theym
importable withoute remadye be hadd in this behalfe folowyng .
Wherfore like it youre good and great wyfdomys to graunte at
this Comon Semble . That forafmyche as it is ordeyned by the
kyng at his feide Courte of Parliament that euery clothemaker
lhall gyffe and paye to euy laborer of cloth makyng Redy money
for theyr occupacon . That fro this tyme forwarde if eny of the
feide befechers . Whiche nowe be or fhalbe . That is to fey Carders
Spynners Weus and ffullers beyn dreven to take any other Ware
or marchaundife contrary to the ftatutes or actes in the feid
pliament ordeyned and ftabliflhed . That then the Mayre for the
tyme beyng to levy executee and take of euy clothmaker doyng
the contrary fuche recompence and satiffaccion to the profett of
the compleyno1 as in the faide Acte of Parliament is fpecified
and ordeyned . And ovr that all yor feide trewe befechers hartely
prayen and defyren by youre feide wifdomes to confidre that
mony and dySfe Clothes halfe clothes dofens halfe dofens . And
360 Thomas Hunt was mayor of the town in 1465-6, 1473-4, and 1481-2; and
one of the members of the parliament held 28th Henry VI.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 303
other faggis of cloth is fufpecte made of diuerfe colours beyng
hadd and putt to ffullyng to diuerfe plbnys withinne this town .
And fro the feide ffullers delyued withoute serche of the wardens
of the feide ffullers crafte therto yerely fworne . That fro this
tyme forwarde what pfone of the feide ffullers Crafte within
this toun dwellyng delyue or make to bee delyued eny maner of
clothe if it be more or leffe to eny cloth maker withoute the
fame ffuller bryng the Awner of the feid cloth before the feid
Wardens to prove it is owne ppur good in peyne to paie
to the town . x s . And to the Crafte x s . by caufe ther is fo
myche wolle and yerne falefely embafeled . And that then the
feid wardens to certifie the Maire for the tyme beyng therof
in the fame payne . And that euy ffuller from this tyme forwarde
be Enabeled in his warkmanfhip by the feide wardens . And allfo
by two burgeis of the xxiiij" chofen by thadvyfe of the Meyrefe
for the tyme beyng . And the feide Wardens with him that he
be worth of his owne ppur good . x . Marc . Allfo yf ony houf-
holder of the feid crafte be noyfed w* ony ffelony or vntrouth
to the valure of fuche a fume As he myghte be atteynte fore
by the kynges lawes by surmyttyng or fuggeftion of ony pfone
}>* man fo noyfed mail nott occupie the feide crafte within this
Toun vntille he be lawfully excufed or ellis founde gylty . And
if ony parfone be fo founde gyltie that then he to be punyfhed
accordyng to the kyngf lawies . By thadvyfe of the maire for
the tyme beyng and his brethern And what pfone . And what
pfone difclaimdreth or diffaunth ony hufholder of the fame crafte
of ony ffelony falfenes or vntrouth as it is before feide that he
ihulde doo or vfe . And he may not therof bryng forth his witt-
neffe or proves and therof be atteyned . That then he mall
paye to the profett of the feide town and the feid Crafte
xx s euenly to be departed As ofte tyme as ony loo offen-
deth . Allfo praying you to Remembre that it is greatly fpoken
comoned and merueled Afwell by lordis worfhipfull whiche
done mewe theire good lordmippis and fauoure to this town As
by marchaunte5 Citelfyns and burgeis thurgh this Realme. That
hit is fofered of clothmakers of this towne to putte theire werke
in to the hondis of other pfonys dwellyng owte of the ffraunches
of this feide town. And fo doo fee daily their pore neighburghis
to be in great diftrefle and pouerte for lake of occupacion like
to be famyffhed or ellis falle in to greate mifchiff . Wherefore in
304 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
efchewyng of great Inconuenienc} both to god & to the worlde
no we at this tyme to lett ordeigne And ftabliiilie that if any
clothmaker of this toun henfforwarde putt or doo to be putt ony
werke owte of the ifraunches to ony pfone to wevyng or ffullyng
but onely to thenhabytaunte} of the fame . That clothmaker which
doth contrary in eny parte longyng or dependyng to the feid
clothmakyng paye for euery offence to the chaumbr of the
feide town xiij s iiij d . confideracion to be hadde . that ther is for
[Folio 66b.] jake Qf occupacion in this be halfe before compleyned xviij
skore place} and howfes and tenemente} dillate and voide withinne
this town which we truft to in god mall enhabited bettur then
euy they were theis pmitfes doone grauntt and confidered. As
charite requyreth . Thife Actes and ordinaunces to take effecte
and ftande in ftrenght Att the ffefte of Criftemas nowe next
folowyng date of this ^fente euer to endure Withowte ony pibne
wolle make fufficiaunt pve w*inne A yere then next folowyng
Att A comon semble that this feide ordinaunces fhulde caufe or
growe to ony Jnconuenyence to the weall and pfi3te of then-
habitaunte} of this feide Town . This Acte and ordinaunces to
be putt and Recorded in the Regeftre of the Courte in the
Town of Norhampton Amonge other ftatutes and ordynaunces
of the fame towne . And the tranfcripte therof to be enfealed .
Afwell with the Seall of the office of the Mairalte As with the
Comon Seall of the fame towne yeuen At Norhampton Aforefeid
the Thurfday [2oth December, 1464] in the vigell of Seynt
Thomas thappoftill the iiijte yere of the Reigne of kyng
Edwarde the iiijte & c.
ORDINACO FACT TEM'PE JOHIS BUTLER MAIORIS ANNO R R
EDWARDI inj" vto
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF JOHN BUTLER 261 IN THE 5TH
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG EDWARD IV.]
[Folio 67a.]
This indenture witneffith Acouaunde made betwix all the Artificers
of Wexchaundelers crafte w%ne the town of Norhampton dwellyng
vppon the oon ptie And the xxiiij*1 Comburgeis arid all other of the
Cominalte in the pariffhe Chirche of Seynt Gyle of the feide town
in the Wednefday [i6th October, 1465] next Aftyr the ffefte of
Seynt Denys then ther at A comon semble beyng
261 John Butler or Buttilor was Mayor of the town in 1466-7.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 305
SYN MANY AND diufe compleyntes vnfittyng and fedicious
langage longe tyme hath beyn Amonge the Comon pepull Reignyng
vpon the Artificers of Wexchaundelerfcrafte within this town of
Norht inhabitaunt & dwellyng for their defeivable makyng of Torchis \vex chaunde-
& Torchettf not durable ne fufficiantly made as it is oppynly *m y
em0ng
proved be the brynnyng of hem but by the feide Artificers of the
fame Crafte diifeyvable made not of fufficiaunt Stuffe ne trewly
wrought to the greate hurte rebuke & difclaundre of all the Ar-
tificers of the fame crafte . And alfo great difclaundre both to the
meire whiche is the Clerke of the Market withinne this town for
the tyme beyng os vnto the wurlhip of town . Wherefore John
Buttillor Maire of the Towne of Norhampton to the goode Avife [Folio 6?b.]
& hole affent of his counfell to hym sworne with full comprounfiion
& Aggrement of all the Artificers of the fame crafte withinne
this town beyng. Afore hym the monday [i4th October, 1465] in
the morne next Aftur the fefl of Seint Denys the martir in the
yere of the reigne of kyng Edwarde the iiijtb Aftur the conquefte
the . vte . in the Gylde halle of the feide town, wyllyng with all
his myght power and good entent to queme [satisfy] and pleafe
god our lorde moft fouayne . And to avoide & repele all man9 com-
pleyntes vnfit tyng & seducyous langage yminent & lyke to ryfe
And to reforme put away & diftroye all fuche difleyveable
makyng of Torches & Torchettf hereaftir infynitely to endure
hath ordeyned prouyded and in this p9fent indentur included &
fpecified diufe ordinaunces And Articules to be obferued & kepte
fynally among hem withoute menimyng or addycyon to be made
but if it be by alfent of the Maire for the tyme as hereafter is
exprelfed and noted . The furfte that all the maifters of the faide
Crafte that nowe ben and here aftir fhull ben euy yere in the
feft of all halous haue licence to Aflemble and come to gydur
withoute eny confedercies makyng chefyng the fame day . ij . of
the mofte able men maifters of the fame crafte into wardens and
ferchers of the fame crafte for the yere enfuyng . whiche Wardens
foo yerely chofen fhulbe prefented Afore the maire for the tyme
beyng in Gylde hall vppon the monday next folowyng Theire
eleccyon then ther to make bodilye othe trewly to obferve ferche
and oufee . All & iyngler Torches and Torchettf is from this
tyme forwarde withinne the ffraunches of this towne made to
be folde . And if thei fyde any Torches or Torchettf hereaftr.
made and not of fufficiant Stuffe that Torche or Torchet to be
W
306 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
forfeit to the profet of the Town . And the maker therof to be
put to Afyne by thadvife of the Maire for the tyme . his counfell
and wardens of the fame crafte . Alfo pvided hit is that the ieide
wardens for the tyme beyng haue Aseall enprented to feale with
all fuche Torches & Torchettf as the ieide wardens & ferchers
fhall prove fuffycyauntly made . And ou that the Awner of the
Torches or Torchettf fhall haue AnoJ>9e seall of his owne that he
may sett vppon Torches or Torchettf by fyde the seall
of the ieide wardens in witneffyng of his owne dede Alib
prouyded it is that if ony Torches or Torchettf be putte to
[Folio 68b.] fale or folde writhinne this town hereaff and not sealed as it
is before comprifed that then the ieide Torche or Torchet
lhalbe forfet to the Town and the maker or feller therof to be
putt to Afyne of vjs viijd oon halfe therof to the maire for the
tyme beyng as trefoure of the town & the other halfe to the
Comon weale of the feide craft euenly to be departed as often
tymes os ony foo offendith. Alfo purveid hit is if ther be ony
pfone of the countre that makith ony Torche or Torchettf &
bryngeth hem to this town to be folde. That then the ieide
wardens & ferchers have full power thoo Torches or Torchettf
to ferche & ou^fee And if they benot fuffycyauntly made as it is
Afore reherfed that then the feide Torche or Torchet to be for-
fett to the comon profett of this town . Allfoo ordeyned it is that
non of the Artyficers of the fame crafte withinne this town
dwellyng from this tyme forward goo ne fende ony other in his
name to make ony Torche or Torchet owte of the ffraunches of
this town whiche torche or Torchet fhalbe put to fale in
[Folio 6ga.] this town or in ony other place thurgh the which ony deceyte or
hurte myght growe to ony of thenhabitauntf of the feide towne
or ony other of the kyngis liege peple in peyn of vjs viijd .
the oon halfe therof to be paied to the town And the other
halfe to the craft os ofte as ony foo offendith Alfo purveid
it is that no foreyn pfone what fo eu9e he be henfforward take
vpon hym withinne the ffraunches of this town to make ony
fuche torche or torchettf vndre the proteccyon or tuycion of ony
of thenhabitaunte} of this town tille he furfte giffe warnyng to the
feide wardens for the tyme beyng. Thoo Torches or Torchettf
to ferche and ou9fee as it is Abovefeide in peyn of vjs viijd to
be paied the oon halfe therof to the profet of the toun The
other halfe to the profet of the feide crafte euenly to be depted
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
307
os often os ony too offendith w*oute ony m9cy in this behalfe
hadd. Alib ordeyned it is that the leide wardens & ferchers for
the tyme beyng (hall Attende & be redy owther the toon or
both or ellys sum of trufty body by the Alignment of the lame
wardens of the lame occupacion for the tyme vpon refonable
warnyng hadd by the Ieide torche maker to execute & doo all that
in thefe ordynaunce is comprised and made vpon peyn of vi 8 viij d
to be paied to the profet of this toun the oon halfe thereof. And
the other halfe to the crafte evenly to be depted os often tyme os
ony too offendith
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE WILLI
AUSTYN MAIORIS P PISTENAR
ANNO RR EDWARDI QUARTI
SEPTIMO
AD colloqum gen9ale ten? in
Ecdia pocft Sci Egidij ville Nor-
hampton die mercunj px ante fin
SciDioniiij mris Anno regni Regis
Edwardi quarti poft conqueftum
Septimo Perexemiam difcrecion-
em WiSi Aufteyn nunc dee ville
maioris Rot>ti Mofe & Jonnis
Spriftowe it>m Baliio^ & pAvifiam-
entu Ac confiliu xxiiijor Combur-
gennucumvnanimi Atfeniu & con-
cenlu tocius c5itatis ville pnotate
Sequens ordinaco & Statutum in
dei patris omipotentis honorem &
ad salutem fpualem & corpalem
omi Criftiano^ tarn infra dcam
villam c5movanc qm ad eandm
villam puenimen? qntum
[Folio 69b.]
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE
TIME OF WILLIAM AUSTYN 262
MAYOR FOR FISHMONGERS IN
SEVENTH YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF KING EDWARD THE
FOURTH.
At a general conference held
in the parish church of S* Giles
in the town of Northampton on
Wednesday [yth October, 1467]
next before the feast of S* Denys
the Martyr in the seventh year
of the reign of King Edward the
Fourth after the Conquest by the
excellent discretion of William
Austeyn then mayor of the said
town Robert Mose and John Spri-
stowe Bailiffs there and by the
advice and counsel of 24 burgesses
with the unanimous assent and
consent of the whole commonalty
of the town before mentioned
The following ordinance and tFolio
statute to the honour of God the
Father Almighty and to the health
spiritual and corporal of all Chris-
tian men as well dwelling within
the said town as resorting to the
262 William Austyn, or Austin, was mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-9, and
1476-7.
W 2
308 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
lex Anglie & confuetudo ville in same town as far as the law of
fe exigunt & requirunt modo England and the custom of the
edi? eft & ftabilitum temporib} town allow and require was lately
infuturis duratur put in lingua published and established to last
ma?na Sequit1" inhec Verba for future times as follows in our
mother tongue in these words
The kynges right and Rente with the Appropurtees of his
trewe liege people to the Courte of this Towne Sewters Afwell
Relident as non Refident hertely defyryn and prayen your good
Maifterfhippes and good Willis in gen9all in this by halfe to be
fliewed . That for aflbmuch as of olde tyme hit hath ben vfed
and Accuftomed that all maner pfones sellyng eny maner see-
fiffhe Afwell ftokefifh as eny other fyilh owe to kepe her ftalles
fee fiffhe to be and (landing withinne the circuyte and place there Accuftomed
rentyd to the w*inne this feide town Accordyng to other Citees Townes and
eiis where Burghes withm the Realme . Howe be it certeyn pfones for their
ppur and fingler Avayle hath taken vppon hem to occupie and sell
suche man9 seefyflhe owte of the feide place Affigned and Accuf-
tomed of tyme withowte mynde. And alfo the feide pfones doon
occupie and vfen to fhewe all maner of suche seefyflhe vppon
bakftalles whiche be not Rented to the kyng our fou9ayne Lorde
[Folio fob.] m piudice of the feide kyngis Rent and dilherytyng his true liege
people. By youre great Wifdomys and fad Reafonns at this tyme
to pvyde ordeigne and ftabliffhe That no pfone fro thys tyme forwarde
take vpon them to fell any man9 seefyffhe owte of the feide
place of olde tyme accoitomed ne to fhewe ony fuche fyfme
vtwarde nor occupie ony fuche bakftalle in peyn of forfetture
of all suche fyffhe foo mewed in the contrarie the one halfe
therof to the pfite of this towne And the other halfe to the
suftynaunce of the lightes in the high pace afore the Rode in the
Chirche of all halowes whiche hath beyn longe tyme mayntened
by the pfones sellyng fuche maner fyffhe And nowe they w*
drawe they re devocyon therof by caufe that certeyn pfones doo
ftande owte of the Circuite and place of olde tyme accuftomed And
occupyen and vfen fuche bakftalles in jpiudice of the kynge as it
it Afore conprifed. Provided Allwey that be it liefull to all and
fingler pfones to take availe and well recorfe the terme yerely
eu9y faturday in lenton which is the mkett Affigned and non
other day in the yere but they kepe ther ftallis which be rented
of the kyng and of dyu fe other mennys in the m kett place
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
309
Accostomed for eu9 in peyn of eu^y pione or pfones occupyng
-contrary to this pfent Acte to leie vjs vii]d so that thei Accorde
w* the bailiff} for the tyme beyng whiche ben feoffermours to
the kyng our ibu9ayne lorde withinne this town
[Folio ?ia.]
Et quo ad debi? excu? siue
punicionem iftius ordinacis vel
ftatuti plibati ad Jfens edil & 1'ta-
bili? mandatu eft decretum et
determinate vt iftud ftatutu aut
Actum scribatur in Regiftro
Curie ville Norhampton in ce?a
Record^ it»m imppuu Remaniur
&c
ORDINACO FACT p ART
PISTOR HOC ANNO
AD hufteng ten? in Guyhald
ville Norftt die lune px ante fm
Sci Hugonis Epi Anno regni
Regis Edwardi quarti septimo
p exemiam difcretione Wifti Auf-
teyn tune dee ville maioris Rot>ti
mofe & JoRis Spriftowe i"bmbaiiio^
et p auifiamen? ac conliliu Wifti
Paryn Thome Brafeld Thome
Hunt Joftis Butteler et Joftis
Hancok nup dee ville mak>£ ac
Thome Saxby Joiiis Aflliburne
Si5nis Balle JoRis Clerke & Johis
Harrys sen9 baker et quam pluri-
b} de xxiiijor burgenc ad tune iftm
-couoca? cum vnanimi affeniu &
And for the due execution or
punishment of that ordinance or
statute before mentioned pub-
lished for the present time and
established it was commanded
decreed and determined that that
statute or act be written in the
register of the Court of the town
of Northampton there for ever to
remain among the other records &c
ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE
CRAFT OF BAKERS THIS YEAR
At a court of hustings held in
the Guildhall of the town of Nor-
thampton on Monday [i6th Nov-
ember, 1467] next before the feast
of S* Hugh the Bishop in the
seventh year of the reign of King
Edward the Fourth by the ex-
cellent discretion of William
Austeyn263 then Mayor of the said
town Robert Mose and John
Spristowe Bailiffs there and by
the advice and assent of William
Paryn Thomas Brafeld Thomas
Hunt John Butteler and John
Hancok lately Mayors of the
said town and Thomas Saxby
John Asshburne Simon Balle John
Clerke and John Harris Senior
baker and several of the 24 bur-
gesses then and there summoned
with the unanimous assent and
[Folio 7xb.]
ses 'William Austyn, or Austin, was mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-9, and
-1476-7.
310
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
concenfu om artificu artis pifto
ville predicte Sequens ordi-
naco & ftatutum in del oini-
potentis honorem Aceciam ad
comodum & oportunitatem pifto^
infra villam Noriit vfita? fit
deinceps exercedm quatum lex
Anglic & cofuetudo ville in
consent of all workers of the craft
of bakers of the town aforesaid
The following ordinance and
statute to the honour of God Al-
mighty and also for the advantage
and convenience of the bakers
within the town of Northampton
practising or hereafter to practise
the craft as far as the law of Eng-
se exigunt & requirunt modo
edi? eft & ftabili? temporib3 land and the custom of the town
infuturis duratur put lingua ma?na allow and require was lately pub-
sequitr in hec verba lished and established to last for
future times as follows in our
mother tongue in these words
That for alibmyche as certeyn & diuerie pfones of the feide
bakers carying bakers bifore this tyme hath fente and late karye brede of all
fn the centre"8 man9 greync owte of the ffraunches of this feide Towne into
be wayed diucrfe townfheppis of the centre whiche brede hath bien often
fpoken of and compleyned that it hath or Ihulde be made
deceitfully and non sufficiaunt weight to an vniufall hurte of the
kingf liege people Caufyng great Rumor and noyfe to be fpoken
to the dilhonure of the maire for the tyme beyng and oppyn dif-
claundre of the same town . Jn efchewyng wherof to late ordeyne
for this tyme forward that no baker of this town nother fende
ne late karie by any maner meane or sotiltie any maner of brede
owte of the ffraunches of this town where dewe ferche &
correccyon may be done at all tymes in peyne of vis viijd the
[Folio 7»a.] one half e thereof to the profite to the Chaumbre of this Towne .
And the other halfe to the fuftynaunce of the lyghtes and torches
of the fame crafte As often os ony so offendyth
Et quo ad debitm punitionem And for the due punishment
liue executionem iftius ordinat5nis or execution of that ordinance
& ftatuti plibat ad prefens edi?
& ftabulitum mandatu eft & de-
cre? vt iftud ftatutum aut actum
scribat1' in Regiftro curie ville
Jdce inter ce?a Recordf imppm
rbm Remanfur &c
and statute before mentioned
published for the present time
and established it was com-
manded and decreed that that
statute or act be written in the
register of the court of the town
aforesaid there to remain for
ever among the other records &c
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
ORDINACIO FACT p GOES
JANTACULOS DIEBZ DINCIS ANTE
CELEBRACOEM SUMME MISSE
HOC ANNO TEMPE WILLI
AUSTEN MAIOR ANNO R~R
EDWARDI QUARTI SEPTIMJ
ORDINANCE MADE FOR
CoMiMON BREAKFASTS ON
SUNDAYS BEFORE THE
CELEBRATION OF HlGH MASS
THIS YEAR IN THE TIME OF
WILLIAM AusTEN264 MAYOR IN
THE SEVENTH YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF KING EDWARD THE
FOURTH
Ad colloqum infra Icriptum At a conference below written
ordinatum & stabili? exftat put it is ordained and established as
subfequentia pat} in Anglicis subsequently appears in English
verbis
That no maner of pfone from this tyme forwarde whiche beyn f°£ brekefaft
* anor the mane
or hereaftr fhall beyn withinne this towne and ffraunches of Nor-
hampton inhabitaunt dwellyng or Refident fhall dyght ordeyne or
make ony maner of vitall in her howfes or places to sell nor kepe
occupie ne vfe any ale sellyng to any maner of pfone or pfones
vpon the Sondayes vntille the high mefle be done and holy brede
delte in theire piflh Chyrche Where ony fuche pfone is abydyng
dwellyng or Refydent vnder the payne to paye euyche pfone
doyng the contrary at euy tyme that any of hem be lawfully
proved defaultyng here Jnne vj8 viijd to be levied and paied of
eayche tranfgreifour in this bihalfe vnto the profet of this Town
withoute ony mercy or faver. Provided alwey that it be lefull to
all maner pfones to dight or deyne and make mete to fuche
pfones as bien travellyng men or women afwell of this Towne
as of the Cuntree paffyng vpon her Jorneis and nedis or elles
ony pfone efecked or holden with fekenes so that it be nott
vnder fubtilite fraude coloure or colyfion of any parte of this
ordinaunce or Acte vnder the seide peyne of vj8 viijd to be leved
and paid of ony pson so lawfully proved with ony luche subtelite
fraude coloure or colyiion at euy tyme foo offendyng withoute
fauer or mercy in any wife to be hadde. This Acte and or-
dinaunce to be Regeftred and writen in the Regeftre in the toun
of Norhampton amongf other actes and ordinaunce there to
remayne in ftrenght and effecte of thife pmiiles imppetuall ffurther-
[Folio 733.]
264 William Austen, Austyn or Austin, was mayor of the town in 1459-60, 1468-9,
and 1476-7.
312
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
more it is enacted and prouyded and ordained from this tyme forwarde
that noo maner of pfone or pfones As of the crafte of Cookys w'in
this Town inhabitaunt or dwellyng fhallnot dyght ordeyng or make
peyes or any other vytaill vppon the Sonday in eny maner Wyfe but
oon affigned Allonly euy fonday of the feide Crafte to make &
ordeyn pyes and other Vitaile in payne to paye to the meir
for the tyme beyng vjs As often as eny ben offendyn in pmiifis
73b.] ORDINACO FACT TEMPE WILLI
FFLOURE MAIORIS ANNO RR
HENRICI SEPTIJ QUINTO
MEMORANDUM qd die lime
px ante ffm Purificatois bte Marie
Virgis Anno regni Regis Henrici
feptij poft conqm quinto Ad huf-
teng ten? in Guyhald ville Norfet
p difcretionem & consiliu Wifti
ffloure tune it>m maioris Rici Em-
fon Recordatoris rbm Thome Hunt
Joftis Clerke Simonis Brafelde
Witti Milly Willi Lynde Henrici
Humffrey & Thome Derby Ac
Alio^ qmplurimofc de virginti qua-
tur comburgenfib} fuis . Acetiam
comodum & oportunitatem infra
ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME
OF WILLIAM FLOURE 265
MAYOR IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY
THE SEVENTH
MEMORANDUM that on Mon-
day [ist February, 1490] next
before the feast of the Purification
of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
the fifth year of the reign of King
Henry the Seventh after the Con-
quest At a court of hustings held
in the Guildhall of the town of
Northampton by the discretion
and counsel of William Floure
then mayor there Richard Em-
son266 recorder thereThomas Hunt
John Clerke Simon Brafelde Wil-
liam Milly William Lynde Henry
Humffrey and Thomas Derby
and many others of the twenty-
four burgesses and also for the
ad vantage and convenience within
265 William Floure, or Flower, was mayor of the town in 1490-1.
266 Richard Emson, or Empson, was said to have been the son of a poor sieve maker
at Towcester. He was a member of parliament for Northamptonshire ; and in 1491
was elected speaker of the House of Commons ; he was knighted, and in 1504
became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; he was also appointed recorder of
Northampton and Coventry. Sir Richard Empson assisted Edmund Dudley in
raising money for King Henry VII, by enforcing obsolete laws, and imposing ex-
orbitant fines. Upon the King's death, both Empson and Dudley were committed
to the Tower. Empson was tried at Northampton, 3rd October, 1509. and was
beheaded with Dudley on Tower Hill in August, 1510.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 313
villam NorRt ufitat9 & deinceps the town of Northampton prac-
ex9cendf quatum lex Anglie & con- tised and hereafter to be practised
fuetudo ville in fe exigunt & re- as far as the law of England and
quirunt modo edit9 eft & ftabilit9 the custom of the town allow and
temporib} futuris duratuf put m require was lately published and
lingua materna fequit1 in hec established to last for future times
verba as follows in our mother tongue
in these words
Syn that many and diufe vnfittyng langage and feducious
and myffe rule therof and vngodly gounaunce hath longe tyme
reigned in the Borough and toun of Norhampton Amonge then-
habytaunte} ther and dwellers of the fame And for A ppetuall peace to
be hadde Wee haue confyclerid and ordered . ffirft and princypally
pleafith god eftablifthith parfite reft and tranquylite noreffhith and for Raylyn
^ncrefith loue & charite emonge vs . The vniufall weale allwey orT^of
inhauncyng & flouryng caufith plente and habundaunce and lawes XX111J
to haue their due courfes . Juftice be indyfferently mynyftred and
executed by theife be halues . And by the contrarye wey and vie
therof enfuen comocyons ftryves debates pouertye & miferie
& many other inconuenyencf The pell and daungers whereof
muft of reafon be Arected and leide to the charges of thoo [Folio
jpfones hauyng Rule and Auctorite where eny myfgounaunc^ be
vied or haunted Be hit provided allwey for the more fyrmall Jn Pimis
graunt to be eftabliiihed of this pfent ftatute and ordynaunce
from this tyme and the tyme to come . That no man9e of pfone
or pfones what degree or condycon foo eu9 he bee That is
ffraunchifed and therto Iworne to the lytitees ffredomes and
vfages of the forfeid toun before the meire for the tyme beyng .
but that he w* all his power and diligens to be Justifiable to
the meire and bailliff} of this toun that now bee hath bee &
fhalbe The ffredomes and vfages of the feide toun lhall mayntene
to his power as more pleynly to hym fhalbe fhewed at the
makyng of his othe . That noo man9e of pfone or pfones of what-
fomeu9 degre or condycyon that eu9 he bee That is A ffranchifed
man dwellyng or reftyant within this feide toun and Borowe .
That hath in eny man9 wise eny feducyoufe Royotoufe &
Malicioufe langage by the meire or by eny of theym that hath
byn meyres or by eny other of the xxiiij" . comburgelfe3 of the
forfeide toun. Jn fclaundryng or appeyryng theire good name and
fame or eny of theym in eny man9 of vntrouth or eny other
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 74b.]
[Folio
Ryotoufe & feducyoufe langage Jn hynderyng appeyryng or
dispfonyng eny of them b3 fuffycyaunt proves made therof byfore
the meire and his counfell for the tyme beyng . That then that
pfone or pfones that so noyfith fclaundryth or defamyth eny of
theym Above reherfed And therin be founden defectyve & gylty
before the meire & his counfell That then the forfeid pfone or pfones
pay to the meyre for the tyme beyng As comyn Trefoure of the
forfeide toun xls yif that he bee of Abylytee and power to pay
the feide xls . furthermore yif the feide pfone or pfones be not
Able ne of power for to pay the feide xl s . That then they
remayne in prifoun there xx11 dayes by the difcreifyon of the meire
and his counfell at theire pleafur difponfable This Acte & or-
dynaunce to be Affermyd and eftablifihid in the Regeflure
emongefte other ther to Remayne Jnfynytly to endure
INCIPIT IUDICIU PILLOR &
TUMBERELL
Si PISTOR conuictus fuit vel
brafiatrix conuict9 qd iftas affifas
fubfequent9 non S9uau9int . primo .
Scdo & tertio Am9cietr scdiTi
quantitatem delicti si non267 g*uit
deliquerint plures & caftigari nol-
uerint paciantr iudiciu corporis S.
piftor colliftrigiu braliatrix trobu-
chetu vel caftigatoriu . Primo sex
legales holes iurent fidelit9 collig^e
omnes menfuras ville . videiet buf-
felles di buflelles gallon potell
quart9 tarn de taftnis qam de alijs .
vlnas & pondera . S . libras tronas
Ac minora pondera villa^ p que
ponderantr panes in Cur . sciit de
HERE BEGINS THE JUDGEMENT
OF THE PILLORY AND
TUMBREL
IF A BAKER or a maltster
shall have been convicted that
they have not kept these follow-
ing assizes for the first second
and third time let him be fined
according to the amount of the
fault if they have not offended
seriously more often and refuse
to be corrected 268 let them suffer
corporal punishment that is to
say a baker the pillory the malt-
ster the ducking stool or tumbrel
In the first place six liege men
must swear faithfully to collect
all the measures of the town
namely bushels half-bushels gal-
lons pottles and quarts as well
from the taverns as other places
ells and weights that is to say
267 This non appears to be redundant here.
2C8 Or " to amend their ways after being fined."
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
315
quoit gen9e panis vnu panem. Et
sup menfur vlnas & pondera &
etiam sup singles panes scribant
noia eo£ diftincte quo£ lint et men-
fur vni colligant . Poftea iurent .
xij . legales hoies fidelit9 re-
fponder ad int9ogata ab eis ex
pte PvS querat9 ab eis que 269
fcripta funt & fiqua lint secreta p-
ponant fecrete & puatim refpond-
eant. Et mandet1" ballis qd fteant
corpora oriu pifto^ & brafiatric
vna cum menfur & omib} Alijs
fupftdictis . Primo queratr de ven-
ditone frumenti videiit quomodo
vendebatr vlt9 die m9cati quart9
melioris frumenti & quomodo
quart9 minoris frumenti et quo-
modo quart9 t9tij ptij & quomodo
quart9 ordei & Auea^ Poftea quo-
modo refpondeant panes pisto^ in
Cur sua videiit waftelli & Alij
the pounds trons and smaller
weights of the towns by which
loaves are weighed in the court
that is to say one loaf of every
kind of bread And upon the
measures ells and weights and also
upon the different loaves must be
written distinctly the names of
the persons whose they are and
they must tie the measures to-
gether Afterwards 12 liege men
must swear faithfully to answer
to what is asked of them on behalf
of the king enquiry must be made
of those names that are written
marks must be secret they must
determine secretly and make an-
swer in private And charge must
be given to the bailiffs that they
have the bodies of all the bakers
and maltsters together with the
measures and all other things
named above First enquiry must
be made about the sale of corn
namely for how much there was
sold on the last market day a
quarter of better corn and for
how much a quarter of second
best corn and for how much a
quarter of the third value and
for how much a quarter of bar-
ley and oats Afterwards they
must enquire how the loaves of
the bakers correspond in court
namely wastels and other loaves
whether according to the sale
of the better value or of the
[Folio 7SbJ
269 This is somewhat obscure.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
panes Scdm venditoem melioris
pt? aut minoris Aut t9tij $tij Itm
p quanto incremento in quartis
frumenti venditoe debeat pifto^
mutare affifam earn & pondus
panis fui . Jtiii quantu debeat pon-
derare wastell de qa & omes Alij
panes Scdm venditoem quart^ij
frumenti quam plentant . Itm p
quanto defcu ponderis panis de
q* pistor debeat Am9ciari vel
subire iudicm pillor Scdfn con-
fuetudinem Cur sue Jtm si aliquis
senefcallus vel ballis p aliqua in9-
cede remif9it iudicm pillorie vel
tumbrell adiudicatu vel de iure
adiudicandf .Jtm si heatr pilloria
in villa debite forcitudinis Scdm
quod ptinet ad Irbtatem m9cati
qua vti poffit si necetfe fu9it et
sine piculo corporis hois vel
mulieris . Poftea queratr de Affifis
vendicoe vini poft receiTum Juftic
itin^ant9 vel eo£ qui fuerunt vlt9
in officio m9cati in villa videlt de
n5ib3 vinetar et p quanto vendi-
deruntSextar vini Jtm si Aliquod
f Folio ?6a.] vinu sit in villa corruptu & quod
corpori hois non eft fanu De affilu
s^uis9 in Cur vill quai sit & si ob-
feruetr fin autem que brafiatrices
vendiderunt cont* affia} & noia
second best or of the third value
Also for what increase in the
quarter in the sale of corn the
baker ought to change that
assize and the weight of his loaf
Also how much the wastel loaf
ought to weigh and all other
loaves according to the selling
price of a quarter of corn which
they present Also for what de-
ficiency of weight of a loaf a
baker ought to be fined or to
undergo judgement of the pillory
according to the custom of their
court And also if any steward
or bailiff for any bribe shall have
remitted the judgement of the
pillory or tumbrel adjudged or
rightly to be adjudged Also if
there be a pillory in the town of
suitable strength according to
what belongs to the liberty of
the market which can be used
if necessary and without danger
to the body of man or woman
Afterwards enquiry must be
made about the assizes in the
sale of wine after the departure
of the justices itinerant or of
those who last were in office of
the market in the town namely
about the names of the vintners
and for what price they sold a pint
of wine Also if there be in the
town any wine spoiled or that is
not wholesome for a man's body
Also about the assize of ale in
the court of the town what it is
and if it be observed but if what
the maltsters sold was contrary
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
317
eo£ diftincte pientent & p quoit
delicto Am9ciari debent vel pati
iudrn tumbrell si contra affifam
vendiderunt Jtm fiqui fint in villa
qui p vnam menfuram emunt & p
aliam vendunt Jtm si quis vtatr
falfis vlnis vel fallis pdderib} aut
menluris Jtm siqui carnifices ven-
dunt carnes suffematas vel de
morte morina Jtm de Cocis
siqui decoquant carnes vel
pifles in pane vel aqua vel
alio modo non sanas humano
corpori vel poftqam talia tenue-
runt Jta qd debitam naturam
amiierunt eas recalefaciunt &
vedunt Jtm de fforeftallar qui ante
debitam horam in villa ftatutam
Aliquid emunt conta ftatut9 ville
& mercati vel qui exeant villam
reb} venalib} obuiante} & exta
villam emant vel in villa ea carnes
vendant ad regratores qam fac;ent
hij qui eas afportabunt si mercato
fuillent Jtm quando quat9ij ordei
vendit1 p ijs vjd tune vij lagen p
ijd quando pro iijs tune tres lagene
ad jd quando p iijs vjd tune v lagen
p ijd sic deinceps crefcet* & ad-
minuet1' p sex denarios Et fciend
eft qd piftor inueniat1 panis quad-
to the assize they must both
distinctly present their names
and for what offence they ought
to be «fined or suffer judgement
of the tumbrel if they have sold
contrary to the assize Also if
there be any in the town who
buy by one measure and sell by
another Also if any man use
false ells or false weights of
measures Also if any butchers
sell meat measled or that died of
cattle plague Also about cooks
if any boil down meat or fishes
in bread or water or any other
way not wholesome for a man's
body or after they have kept
such things so long that they
have lost their due nature if they
warm them up again and sell
them Also about forestallers
who before the statutory hour
in the town buy anything con-
trary to the statutes of the town
and market or \vho go out of the
town to meet goods for sale and
buy them outside the town or sell
meat in the town to regraters
at a higher price than they would
have done who were bringing
them in if they had been in the
market Also when a quarter of
barley is sold for 2s 6d then 7
gallons are to be sold for 2d
when for 35 then 3 gallons for
id when for 35 6d then 5 gallons
for 2d and so continually let it
be increased and deminished for
every sixpence And it must
be known that if a baker be found
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio ?6b.]
rantis in defcu ponderis ijs vj'1 &
infra am9cietr stet si num9um
ilium excedat fubeat iudicm pillor
& non remittatr iudic delincmenti
p auro nee Argento et quitt piftor
heat pprm fignu fup quodlit genus
panu suo£ &c Pilloria siue
colluftrim & tumbrellum continue
habeant1 debite fortitudinis . Jta
qd delinquentm exequi poffit iu-
dicm sine corpo^ piclo Tolnetum
ad molendinu Scdm conflict ud-
inem Angl & Scdm fortitudinem
curfus aque capiatr ad xx g"nu vel
ad xxiiij granu Et menfura p quam
tolnetu capi debeat sit concor-
dans cum menfura dni Regis &
capiat* tolnetu p rafum & non cum
cumulu Et firmarij inveniant mol-
endinarijs neceiraria ita qd nich
capiant nifi debitu tolnetum et fi
aliter faciunt grauit9 am9cietur
Afiila vini Scdfn ass dni regis
obferuetr & fextarin ad xijd Et
si tattnarius ass excedat p
maiorem & baftios ceflam oftiu
tat3na claudaf & non pmitta? vinu
deficient in weight a farthing a
loaf when corn is at 2s 6d and
less let him be fined if he ex-
ceed that amount let him undergo
judgement at the pillory and the
judgement may not be remitted
to the delinquent for gold or
silver And every baker must
have his proper mark upon every
sort of his loaves &c The pillory
or collustringium and the tumbrel
must be kept continually of due
strength so that the judgement of
delinquents can be carried out
without danger to their bodies
Toll at the mill must be taken
according to the custom of Eng-
land and according to the strength
of the watercourse 27° at 20 grain
or 24 grain And the measure by
which the toll ought to be taken
must agree with the measure of
our lord the King and the toll
must be taken scraped flat and
not heaped And the farmers must
find what is necessary for the
millers so that they take nothing
but the toll due and if they do
otherwise let them be heavily
fined
The assize of wine must be
kept according to the assizes of
our lord the King and a pint for
I2d And if the innkeeper exceed
the assize granted by the mayor
and bailiffs let the door of the inn
be shut and he not permitted to sell
270 Perhaps meaning a twentieth or twenty-fourth part of the corn sent to be
ground.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
319
vendere donee a dno rege vel eius
marefcallo licentiam optinuerit
Affifa s9uis scdm vendit5m bladi
& brafij ftatuaf pclamet' & obfer-
vetr Jtaqd brafiatrixnon accrefcat
quadrantem in galone nili p xijd
crefcent in quar?io bralij Et qui
Affiiam s9uis fregerunt primo scdo
Utio am9cietr et quarto sine re-
•demptio fubeant iudm tumbrell
&c
Carnifex qui vendit carnes
porcinas fupfennua? ietfemitas vel
carnes de morinavel emat carnes
de iudeis & vendat Xpianis poft-
qRm primo conuictus fuit Am9cietr
graui? Sc3o conuic? fubeat iudiciu
pillorie . tertio incarceret* & red-
imatr Et quarto abiuret villam .
Et hoc iudicm fiat cocis tranfgre-
dientitf} &c
Standardi buffhelli galon vine
sigillo dni Regis ferrato fignentr
•diligen? et .faluo cuftodiant' sub
pena C libra^ . Et nulla menfura
sit in villa nifi cum menfura dni
Regis concordans & sigill com-
itatus signa? Et siqvis emat vel
wine until he shall have obtained
license from our lord the King or
his marshal. The assize of ale
must be determined proclaimed
and kept according to the selling
price of grain and malt so that
the maltster must not raise the
price a farthing in a gallon unless
there be an increase of I2d in a
quarter of malt And they who
break the assize of ale the first
second and third time must be
fined and the fourth time without
redemption must undergo the
judgment of the tumbrel &c
A butcher who sells measled
pork or meat dead from the cattle
plague or who buys meat from
Jews and afterwards sells it to
Christians when convicted the
first time must be fined heavily tFolio
when convicted the second time
he must undergo the judgement of
the pillory the third time he must
be imprisoned and redeemed and
the fourth time he must abjure the
town And this must be the
judgement for cooks that trans-
gress &c
The standard bushels gallons
and ells must be stamped with
the iron mark of our Lord the
King they must be diligently
kept in safe custody under a
penalty of one hundred pounds
And there must be no measure
in the town not agreeing with
the measure of our Lord the
King and stamped with the mark
of the county And if any one
320
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
vendat p menfuram non signa? p
Maiorem & ballios examita? gaui?
am9cietur . Omnes menfure ville .
maiores et minores bis in anno vel
fepius videantr& examinentur . Si
quis dephenfus fait cum duplici
menfura sciit maiori ad emendf
& minori ad vendend tanqam fal-
fonarius imprifonetr & gauit puni-
atur Standardi bufihelli galofi vine
& ligfn quo menfur iignanda funt
sint in cuftodia Maioris & ballio^
& sex legaliu hoim de villa iurato^
coram quib} omnes menfure sig-
nande signenf . Nullum genus
bladi vendatr . p cumulu vel p of-
iellum p? Aueri braliu & farinam
Nota Et jlcipue ex pte dni Regis Jeep?
qd nullus foriftallarius in villa
paciatr commorari qui paupu eft
depreife} manifefte & totius comi-
tatus & patrie publicus inimicus
qui blada pifcos Allec vel res Alias
quafcumq3 venales quandoq}
[Folio 7?b.] p terram quandoq} p Aquam
obuiando pce?is feftinant qui mer-
catores extaneos cum reb} venalib}
obuiantes offerentes se vendioi
re£ sua^ & augent eis qd bona sua
carnis vendere po?unt qm ppone-
buys or sells by a measure not
stamped upon examination by
the mayor and bailiffs he must
be heavily fined All measures
of the town large and small must
be seen and examined twice in
the year or oftener If any one
shall have been detected with a.
double measure that is a larger
for buying and a smaller for sell-
ing he must be imprisoned as a
forger and severely punished
The standard bushels gallons and
ells and the stamp with which
the measures are to be stamped
must be in the custody of the
mayor and bailiffs and six liege
men sworn from the town in
whose presence all the measures
to be stamped must be stamped
No kind of corn must be sold
by the heap or "ossellum" ex-
cept oats malt and meal And
especially on behalf of our Lord
the King it is ordered that no
forestaller shall be allowed to
dwell in the town who is mani-
festly an oppressor of the poor
and a public enemy of the whole
county and country who hasten
before the rest sometimes by
land and sometimes by water to
get corn fish herrings and any
other things whatsoever offered
for sale who go to meet the
strange merchants with goods
for sale offering themselves as
salesmen of their goods and raise
the price because they will be
able to sell their goods at a
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
32I
bant et sic arte vel ingenio villam
feducunt & priam Primo conuict-
us Am9ciet gaui? scdo fubiciat
iudiciu pillorie . Tertio incarceret*
& redimat1". Quarto abiuret villam
Et hoc iudiciu fiat de foreftallarijs
vniufis et simili? de hijs qui auxiliu
vel coniiliu preftant vel fauorem
Omnes vero culpabiles Attachi-
ati in jpmiiTis ei p Am9ciamenta
caftigari noluerint & plures de-
liquerint gaui? suftineat iudiciu
corpo^ iuo£ ut pillor & triboche-
tum put fup*dcm eft
LUCRUM PlSTORIS &C
NOTA qd piftor poteft tenere
Ass & lucrare in quoiit quar?io
frumenti put ordina? eft p pistor
dni Regis iiijd & le brynne &
tres pan ad furnagiu Et p iij
s^uien? iijd . et p vno s^uien? qd
Et in Sale oft et in yeeft videit
barme ofc et in candel qd & in
focal iijd Et in vno bultell ofo
Pan dfiic ponderabit mins sym-
nello p ijs Pan is ffrancilc8 pon-
derabit min° dnico p ijs
STATUTUM PONDERIBUS &
MENSURIS
Itm ordina? eft p magnam
Cartam . E . quond Reg Angi
higher price than they intended
and so by craft and subtlety be-
guile the town and country When
first convicted he must be heavily
fined the second time he must
undergo the punishment of the
pillory the third time he must be
imprisoned and redeemed the
fourth time he must abjure the
town And this must be the
judgment on forestallers one and
all and similarly for those who
help advise or favour them All
men worthy of blame arrested
in the premisses if they refuse
to be corrected by fines and
offend many times grievously
must undergo corporal punish-
ment at the pillory and tumbrel
as is aforesaid
THE PROFITS OF A BAKER &c
NOTE that a baker can keep
the assize and gain in every quar-
ter of corn as is ordained by our
Lord the King's baker 4d and the
bran and 3 loaves for payment for
for use of his oven And for 3 ser-
vants 3d and for i servant jd And
in salt |d and in yeast that is barm
^d and in candle jd and in fuel 3d
and in one sieve |d "panis dom-
inicus" shall weigh less than
" simnel bread" by 2s upanis
franciscus" shall weigh less than
" panis dominicus " by 2s
STATUTE FOR WEIGHTS AND
MEASURES
ITEM it was ordained by the
great charter of Edward formerly
X
322
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Anno regni sui xxvito Et p ftat-
utum Regis Rici Scdi Anno
regni fui ?tiodecimo quod vnu
pondus & vna menfura sit p
totum regnu Angi Et qd pondus
de Auncell sit dampna? et qd
omnes res ponderabii & vendibil
lint pondera? p balaunfe & qd
le balaunfe non magis inclinat
ad vnam finem qam ad al?am
finem Et qd pondera lint con-
cordanc cum ponderib} de le
ftandard in Sccaio R & illi faci-
unt contariu in venditio forif-
faciunt domino Regi valorem
die re£ sic vendi? pondera? sine
menfur et soluent dco querent
quadriplic damp . Et vl?ius p
ftatutu dci Regis Rici ordina?
eft qd dci tranfgr erunt incar-
cerati p duos Annos & facient
finem & redemptdem ad volun-
ta? Rf &c Et qd Juftic de pace
feebunt poteftatem adinquirendf
de tlib3 ponderib} & menfur
Adeo bn ad sec? partis qm ad
Sec? Regis &c
Itm ordina? eft qd omnis
Ciuitas Burgo & villa infra regnu
Anglie Reat vnu coe balaunfe
& vnum coe pondus concordan?
ad ftandard Sccaij fupadci cu ex-
pn totius commutat dca£ Ciuitat
King of England in the 26th year
of his reign and by statute of King
Richard the Second in the i3th
year of his reign that there should
be one weight and one measure
through the whole realm of Eng-
land and that weight by Auncel
should be condemned and that
all things for weight and sale
should be weighed by balance
and that the balance should not
lean more to one side than the
other and that the weights should
correspond with the weights of
the standard in the King's Trea-
sury and that they who do con-
trary in selling shall forfeit to our
Lord the King the value of the
said things so sold weighed with-
out measure and shall pay to the
said complainant his loss four-
fold And further by statute of
the said King Richard it was
ordained that the said trans-
gressors shall be imprisoned for
two years and shall pay fine and
redemption at the King's will &c
And that the Justices of the
Peace shall have power to make
enquiry about such weights and
measures as well at the suit of a
party as at the suit of the King &c
Also it was ordained that
every city borough and town
within the realm of England
should have one common balance
and one common weight corre-
sponding to the standard of the
treasury aforesaid at the cost of
the community of the said cities
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
323
BurgR & villa^ fupadic? Itm
Maiores aut Conftabilar dca£
Ciuita? burg aut villa^ Rebunt
cuftodiam de Ie3 balaunfe & pon-
der^ fupa die? et qd holes
inRitan? dc? Ciuita? Burg aut
vift Rebunt menfure & pondera
fupadict9 Irbe sine contadictioe
Aliquat quociens necetfe fuit Et
omnes Alij exanei qui occupant
diet9 menfure & pondera soluent
in manib} dcis Ciuitat9 burg aut
ville p quolit xxx infra pondus
de xl li . j . qa et p quoit xxx .
infa xl H & C ii j ot> et p quolit
xxx infra . C li & ml li . j d et sic
crefcend p xxx . ad tantam fumam
quant9 de balaunie portabit p dif-
creffionem Maioris aut Confi?
dca£ Ciuitat9 burg aut vili . Et
qd Justic depace Rent poteftatem
ad examiand & inquirend de omib}
ponderib} & menfuris Aliquo
modo male vlitat9 conta formam
jldcam aut incrochiand aut dim-
inuend siue de ponderib3 vel de
impedimento de le balauns & de
suo natural curfu fupadicta forif-
fact & penas fupadcas Et qd Juf-
tic de pace Maiores & bafti &
senefcall de vim ffanc Rent po-
teftatem fpecial ad exaiand &
inquirend de talib3 t'nfgrefforib}
boroughs and towns aforesaid
Also the mayors or constables
of the said cities boroughs or
towns shall have the custody of
the balances and weights afore-
said and that the inhabitants of
the said cities boroughs and
towns shall have the measures
and weights aforesaid freely and
without refusal to any one as
often as there shall be necessity
and that all other strangers
who use the said measures and
weights shall pay into the hands
of the said city borough or town
for every 30 below the weight of
4olbs |d and for every 30 be-
tween 4olbs and loolbs ^d and
for every 30 between 100 and
looolbs id and so increasing by
30 to such a sum as the balance
will carry by the discretion of
the mayor or constable of the
said cities boroughs or towns
and that the justices of the peace
have power to examine and en-
quire about all weights and
measures in any way misused
contrary to the form aforesaid
either as to excess or deficiency
in the weights or about a defect
in the balance and its natural
direction 271 the aforesaid forfeits
and penalties And that the
justices of the peace mayors
bailiffs and stewards of manorial
courts have special power to
examine and enquire about such
transgressors against the ordi-
271 This is obscure, it appears as if some words were omitted.
X 2,
324
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio 7ga.]
fupa ordinacoem fupadcam & ad
faciend & exequend de tlib} qui
inueniunt1 defectuon* put in for-
ma jpdca fupadcm eft . Et qd dct
ordinaco teneatr & obferuef A
fefto Pafch px seqri viq} inet9-
nu &c Jn omi Ciuitate fub pena .
x li . Jtm in quoit burgo tub pena .
c s . Jtm in qualt villa vel indefcu
cuiuf It conftat* sub pena xls . Et
qd lint vnu balaunfe & pondera
fupadicta concordant9 cu le ftan-
dard Saccij fup"dci infra duas
menf9 px poft pclamat9 fact9 de
jpdict9 ordinatoe fupa pen fupa-
dict9 soluend ad opus dni Regis
quotiens ptes ^dicti videlt tanf-
greffores inuent9 fu9int defectuofi
sup* dcam pclamatoem &c
Si panis piftoris sit magne
etatis vel deficatus vifa etate allo-
cabuntr piftori p diem & noctem .
vjd Et nota qd panes adherentes
Iat9ib} firm non debent ponderari
ppt aduftionem . Et qui faciunt
panem extra ass . Jta qd mini
ponderant grauit9 Am9ciantr et
totum panem ilium pdant &c
Et nota qd pan quad? de
omni blad ponderabit tantum
quantum ponderat pan quad?
equiu et econta &c
nance aforesaid, and to act and
take measures about such as are
found in fault according as it is
said above in the form aforesaid
And that the said ordinance be
kept and observed from the
feast of Easter next following
for ever &c in every city under
the penalty of ten pounds also
in every borough under the
penalty of loos also in every
town under the penalty of 4os
And that there be one balance
and weights as aforesaid cor-
responding with the standard of
the treasury aforesaid within
two months next after procla-
mation made of the aforesaid
ordinance under the penalty
abovesaid of paying to the use
of our Lord the King as often
as the parties aforesaid namely
the transgressors shall have been
found at fault with respect to the
said proclamation &c
If a baker's bread be of great
age or dried up with apparent
age there shall be assigned to
the baker for a day and a night
6d and note that loaves firmly
adhering to the bricks of the
oven ought not to be weighed
because of the scorching And
they who make bread beyond the
assize so that the loaves weigh
very little must be heavily fined
and lose all that bread &c
And note that the farthing
loaf of every sort of corn shall
weigh the same as a farthing loaf
of horse-bread and the contrary &c
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
325
INCIPIT ASSISA PANIS IN
ANGLIA &c
[Q]vando quart^ium frumenti
venditur p xij denar tune panis
quandrantf de waftello pondera-
bit sex libras & sex decim solidos.
Panis a de Coketto de eodm
blado & eodem bultello podera-
bit plufquam waftellus duob5 solf
Et coketo de eodem blado Mi-
noris ptij ponderabit plufqam
waftellus de quinq3 soldf . Panis
v9o de S3^monello bene cocto pon-
derabit mins waftello de duob}
solidis Panis v9o integer de fru-
mento & de quadrante pondera-
bit Coketum & dimidiu . Panis
v^o de Treyte ponderabit duos
waftellos . Et panis de oni blado
ponderabit duos coketos . Quando
quar?iu frumenti vendit* ad xviij
denar tune panis albus & bene
cocts de waftello & de quadrante
ponderabit iiij ii ixs viij d . Quar-
?iu ad ijs tune ponderabit Ixviijs .
Qar?iu ad ijs vjd . tune pon-
derabit liiijs iiijd ofo qa. Quartern
ad iijs .tune ponderabit xlviijs .
Quar?iu ad iijs vjd . tune xlijs .
Quar?iu ad iiijor soi tune ponder-
abit xxxvjs . Quar?iu ad iiijs vjd .
tune ponderabit xxxs . Quar?iu
ad vs . tune ponderabit xxvijs .
ijd o"b Quartliu ad vs vjd . tune
ponderabit xxiiijs viijd . qa Quar-
t9ium ad vjs tune ponderabit
xxijs viijd Quartern ad vjs vjd
tune
HERE BEGINS THE ASSIZE OF
BREAD IN ENGLAND &c
When a quarter of corn is
sold for 12 pence then a farthing
loaf of wastel shall weigh six
pounds and sixteen solidi Also
a loaf of cocket bread of the same
grain and the same bran shall
weigh more than wastel by
two solidi And cocket bread of
the same grain of less price
shall weigh more than wastel by
five solidi But a loaf of simnel
well baked shall weigh less than
wastel by two solidi But a whole
loaf of corn for a farthing shall
weigh a cocket loaf and a half
But a loaf of Treyte 2?2 shall
weigh two wastel loaves And
a loaf of every [other] grain
shall weigh two cocket loaves
When a quarter of corn is sold
at i8d then a wrhite and well
baked loaf of wastel for a far-
thing shall weigh 4! gs 8d A
quarter at 2s then it shall
weigh 68s a quarter at 2s 6d
then it shall weigh 545 4fd a
quarter at 35 then it shall weigh
485 a quarter at 35 6d then it
shall weigh 423 a quarter at 45
then it shall weigh 365 a quarter
at 45 6d then it shall weigh 303
a quarter at 55 then it shall
weigh 273 2|d a quarter at 55
6d then it shall weigh 243 8^d
a quarter at 6s then it shall weigh
22s 8d a quarter at 6s 6d then
[Folio
272 Perhaps Triticum wheat.
326
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
ponderabit. xxs xjd . Quartern ad
vijs tune ponderabit . xixs vd .
Quart9iu ad vijs vjd . tune ponder-
abit xviijs jd ofc Quart9iu ad viijs
tune ponderabit . xvij s . Quartern
ad viijs vjd tune ponderabit xvj s.
Quartern ad ixs tune ponderabit
[Folio 8oa.] . xvs qa Quart9iu ad ixs vjd tiic
ponder xiiijs iiijd o1oqaQuart9iu ad
xs tune ponder xiijs vij qa Quar-
t9iu ad xs vjd tune ponder xijs xjd
qa Quar?iu ad xjs tune ponderabit
xijs iiijd qa Qua?ium ad xjs vjd
tune ponderabit . xjs xd Quar-
tium ad xijs tune ponderabit .
xjs iiijd . AlKifa panis fm qd con-
tinetr in scripto de marchalcia
domini Regis eis liftata teneat1
scdm venditoem frumenti Sil}
melioris scdi & ?tij & tarn waftelli
qam omes alij panes cuiufcumq}
gen9is sint venderentr scdm me-
dia veditonem frumenti . Et non
mittatur affifa nee pondvs nili p
sex denarijs crefcentib} vel de-
creicentib} in venditde quart9ij
frumenti Et sciend eft qd piftor
poteil lucrari in quolifot quar-
?io frumenti vt probatum eft p
Piftores dni Regis quatuor de-
nareos & furfur suu & duos
panes ad furnagiu & trib} s9ui-
entib} jd oft Et duob} garcdib}
ofc . Jtm ad sal ofo ad candet qa
ad buftam iij denar . Et ad bul-
tellum locandum ofo &c
it shall weigh 2os nd a quarter
at j$ then it shall weigh 195 $d
a quarter at ys 6d then it shall
weigh i8s i^d a quarter at 8s
then it shall weigh 175 a quarter
at 8s 6d then it shall weigh i6s a
quarter at gs then it shall weigh
155 Ojd a quarter at gs 6d then
it shall weigh 145 4f d a quarter at
los then it shall weigh 135 y^d
a quarter at los 6d then it shall
weigh I2s ii^da quarter at iis
then it shall weigh 123 4^d a
quarter at iis 6d then it shall
weigh i rs rod a quarter at 125
then it shall weigh us 4d The
assize of bread according to
what is contained in writing in
the Marshalsea of our lord the
King delivered to them must be
kept according to the selling price
of corn that is to say best second
and third sorts as well wastells
as all other loaves of whatever
kind they may be must be sold
according to the average price of
corn And the assize must not
be changed nor the weight except
for a rise or fall of sixpence in
the selling price of a quarter of
corn And it must be known that
a baker can make profit in every
quarter of corn as is approved by
the bakers of our lord the King
four pence and his bran and two
loaves for the use of his oven and
for three servants i|d and for
two boy servants |d Also for
salt Jd for candle jd for firewood
3d and for hire of sieve Jd &c
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
327
INCIPIT ASSISA CERUISIE
[Q]vando quar?ium frumenti
vendit1 ad tres iblidf . vel ad quad-
raginta denar . Et quartern Ordei
ad viginti denar vel ad duos sol-
id? . Et quart9 Auene ad xvj . de-
nar vel ad xviij denar tune debent
et bene poffunt Brafiatrices ven-
der in Ciuitatib} duas lagenas ad
denar & extra Ciuitates tres la-
genas ad denar & quando in
Burgo vendent tres lagene ad
denar extra Burgum debent vendi
quatuor lagene ad denar . Ifta
ailifa eft p totam Anglic ex pro-
uifione domini Regis &c
HERE BEGINS THE ASSIZE
OF ALE
When a quarter of corn is
sold at three shillings or at forty
pence and a quarter of barley at
twenty pence or at two shillings
and a quarter of oats at sixteen
pence or eighteen pence then
the maltsters ought and are well
able to sell in cities two gallons
for a penny and outside the cities
three gallons for a penny and
when in a borough there shall be
sold three gallons for a penny
outside the borough there ought
to be sold four gallons for a penny
This assize is throughout the
whole of England by provision of
our lord the King &c
[Folio 8ob.]
COMPOSITIO POND & MENSURAZ
[P]erordinat6em totius Regni
Angi fuit menfura drii Regis
compofita videlct qd denarius
Anglicanus qui vocatur fterlingus
rotundus & sine tonfura ponder-
abit triginta duo gana frumenti
in medio Spice . Et vncia debet
ponderare viginti denar . Et quin-
decim vnce faciut libram london
Et octo libre frumenti faciunt
galonem vini . Et octo galones
frumenti faciut buflellum london
hoc eft octauam ptem quart9ij .
Duodecim libre & dimidia faciut
petram london . Saccus lane debet
ponderar xxviij .petras .Wayav9o
tarn blumbi qam lane sepi & cafei
ponderat .
THE COMPOSITION OF
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
By ordinance of the whole
realm of England the measure of
our lord the King was arranged
namely the English penny called
sterling round and undipped
shall weigh thirty two grains of
corn in the middle of the ear and
an ounce ought to weigh twenty
pennies and fifteen ounces make
a pound at London and eight
pounds of corn make a gallon of
wine and eight gallons of corn
make a bushel at London that is
the eighth part of a quarter twelve
pounds and a half make a stone at
London A sack of wool ought to
weigh 28 stones but a wey of lead
wool tallow and cheese weighs
328
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
xiiij.petraet due waie lane faciunt
vnu saccu et duodecim sacci
faciunt le laft . Et laft v9o Alleciu
continet decem miliaria & quoli-
b} miliaf continet denos centu
& quodl} Centum ex sexies vi-
[Foiio |8ia.] ginti . laft v9o Corio^ -conftat ex
viginti dakeres & quodl} dakir
conftat ex decem corijs . JtiTi Cen-
tena Rucarij cere pipis simini
amigdala^ & allume continet.
xiij . petras & dimidiam & queli-
bet petra continet octo lib? sum
libra^ in Centena Centum & octo
libre & conciftit le Centum ex
quinquies viginti & quel} libra
ex viginti & quinq} solidis . Sciend
eft qd libra denario^ specie^ con-
fectonum vt pote electuario^ con-
ciftit in ponder viginti solidis .
libra v9o alia^ re£ ponderat . xxv
. solid Jtm in electuarijs confec-
tioib} libra continet duodecim
vncie et vncia conciftit in pdder
xxd . Jtm Centena Bordi Canabi
& binie cele conftat ex Centum
vlnis & Bordis & quelib} Centena
ex sexies viginti . Centena v9o f erri
conftat ex quinquies viginti . Gaba
v9o Calibis continet triginta pecias
seem v9o vitriu conftat ex triginta
petris & quelit>t petra ex quatuor
lit* & ita continet le seem sexies
viginti lifcr . Bynda v9o Anguilla^
conftat ex decem stickes & quilibt
fticka ex viginti & quinq} An-
guift . Bynda v9o pelliu
14 stones and two weys of wool
make one sack and twelve sacks
make a last And then a last of
herrings contains ten thousand
and every thousand ten hundred
and every hundred six score But
a last of hides consists of twenty
dickers and every dicker consists
of ten hides Also a hundredweight
of "rucarii" wax pepper cummin
almonds and alum contains 13
stones and a half and every stone
contains eight pounds The total
number of pounds in a hundred-
weight is a hundred and eight
pounds and the hundred consists
of five score and every pound of
twenty five shillings It must
be known that a pound of pen-
nies spices confections as elec-
tuaries is equal in weight to
twenty shillings but a pound of
other things weighs 25 shillings
Also in electuary confections a
pound contains twelve ounces,
and an ounce is equal in weight
to 20 pence Also a hundredweight
of timber hemp and <l binie cele "
consists of a hundred ells and
planks and every hundredweight
of six score but a hundredweight
of iron consists of five score But
a gaba of iron contains twenty
pieces and a seem of glass con-
sists of thirty stones and every
stone of four pounds and so the
seem contains six score pounds
And a bind of eels consists of
ten sticks and every stick of twen-
ty-five eels And a bind of skins
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 329
continet triginta et tres pelles contains thirty-three skins but a
Tymbra v9o de pellib} . Cuniculo^ " tymbra" of rabbit skins and bad-
& grilbnu conftat ex quadraginta ger skins consists of forty skins A
pellib} . Chief de fustian conftat chief of " fustian " consists of 13
ex trefdecim vlnis Chief de ells a chief of linen contains 10 ells
syndone continet decem vlnas . Also the " rees allium " contains
J _ [Folio 8ib.]
Jtm le Rees alliu continet xv 15 slones and each slone of 25
.slones et qualibet Slone ex vi- heads Also a hundredweight of
ginti & quinq} capitibu} Jtem melwells and hard fish consists
centena mule wello^ & duro£ of eight score &c
pif cm conciftit ex occies viginti &c
ORDINACIO FACTA TEMPE JOHIS SAXBY MAIOR ANNO RR
HENR vnj PRIMO PRO ARTE HELLATAR
.[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF JOHN SAXBY ™ MAYOR IN
THE FIRST YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VIII
FOR THE TILERS' CRAFT]
r A "IT the comon Semble holden in the Guyhald in the Towne
L J of Norhampton the fryday [Friday, i8th May, 1509] aftir
the feft of the Aflencyon of oure lorde The fyrft yere of the Reign
of oure souayn lorde kyng henry the viijth by the examynacyon &
•diicrette difcreffyon of John Saxby mayre of the seide townn of
Norhampton with the full compremyffyon of his Cobrethern wyth F
the xxiiij11 comburgefle of the ibrfeide toun to hym sworne And
alfo with the hoole affent and confent of the hole body of the
seide toun Jn confideracon of the prmyire3 Where the Crafte of
hilliers and Sclatiers of the seide town pytyously shewyth &
complayneth theym for as muche As many & diufe of the feide
occupacion occupieth within the toun afwell foryners and straungers
and thofe that bien vnfraunchifede as we that byn sworne and
fraunchiied By the wiche moche warke is not sufficyently doon
and wrought as it ought for to be to the greate hurte loffe of
theym that doo fett theym a warke By the wych many seducyofe
wordis and clamour rifythe of the seide occupacon as well of
theym that workyth sufficiently & truly as of theym that workyth
dyfcettfully Wherfor it is ordeyned and ftablifled for euermor for
the vnyv9fall wele of the seide toun That ther fhalbe two maftirs
John Saxby or Saxbee was mayor of the town in 1509-10, 1520-1, & I532~3-
This ordinance is written by a later hand.
33° NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of the same Crafte to be electe and chofen for the yer enfuyng and
for that yer to come before the maire for the tyme beynge in the
Guyhald to take their othes that they fliall truely and suerly to oue
see and serche of and all maner of defaltes & trefpafe} doon or
made in the seide Crafte of Hilliers & fclatiers in the seide toun
of Norhampton for the tyme beyng And that the sayde mafters to
fertyfye & make relacon of suche hurtyes harmes & loifes to the
maire for the tyme beyng what pibne or pfones trefpafyth or
offendith w*ought eny confeilment therof in payne therof to pay to
the maire of the seide toun for the tyme beyng xxd And to the
maifters of the seide crafte for the tyme being other xxd to the
suftenaunce & mayntenyng of ther light be fore oure lady in the
freoure prechers374 in Norhampton for the tyme beyng .And further-
mor that no maner of ftraunger that comyth to the toun of NorRt
for to worke ther noo man9 of warke w*in this toun but yf he
worke vnder or wyth that man that is fraunchifede & sworne to
[Folio sab.] ^ }iDerties & ffredoms of the seide toun to the same occupacion
belongyng Jn payne to paye to the maire for the tyme beyng xij4
And alfo other xijd to be payed to the maifters of the seid Crafte
to the suftenaunce & maynteyng of their seide light for the tyme
beyng . moreoue it is graunted to the seide maifters of the seide
Crafte for the tyme beyng to call and sommen all thofe pfones
belongyng or appteynyng to the same Crafte wythin the seide toun
of Nornt for to appere Affore theym at the howfe of the blak
freours in the seide toun of Norftt as oftyn as mall deme neceflary
for the vniufall wele of the seide Crafte of hilliars and the goode
Rule & ordre of the same Crafte in tymes to come . Alfo yf ony
pfone or pfones refuse soo to doo And come not att their dewe
somonys Accordyngly to their ordenaunce here exprefled ffurther-
mor what pfone or pfones that offendyth or trefpaffith in this be
halfe Then he or they to paye to the maire of the seide toun for
the jpfent tyme beyng jii of wexe And allfo another pounde of wexe
to the maifters of the feide Crafte for the tyme beyng to the suf-
tentacon & mayntenyng of their light befor oure lady ther at the
seide place of blake freours w* lycenfe Afbyd or a refonable caufe
of lette proued . Affore the meire for the tyme beyng . The which
acte & ordenaunce to stonde in his full ftrenght emonge other
274 The House of the Black Friars was the same as the House of the Friars
Preachers, before mentioned, in the Horse Market, Northampton.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 331
ordenaunce} in the seide toun of Norhampton for euer to endure [Folio 8sa.]
Jn wittnes wherof We the seide John Saxby wyth my Cobrethern
& w* the hole body of the seide toun of Norhampton to this
prefent writyng haven setto the seall . of the office of meryaltye of
the seide toun of Norhampton the day & yere Above wreton &c
ORDINACO FFACT TEMPE JOHIS HILTON MAIOR P ARTE TEXTOZ [Foiio s3b.}
AN° RR HENR VIIJ TERCIO &c
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF JOHN HILTON 275 MAYOR
FOR THE WEAVERS' CRAFT IN THE THIRD YEAR OF
THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VIII.]
[A]t A comyn femble holden in the Guyhalde of the town of
Norhampton the fridaie [Friday, igth December, 1511] next by
fore the feft of feint Thomas the Appoftell in the thyrd yer of the
Reigne of oure foueynge lord kyng Henr the viijth by the aflent
of John Hilton then beyng maier of the lame town his xxiiij Com-
burge} with all the Comnaltie of the feide town ther beyng pfent
it is Accordid condecendid & aggrede for eu to endure that noo
we3 w*in the faunche3 & lifcties of this town lhall take of noo cloth-
maker within the fame town dwellyng no leiTe ftuffe for to make
a cloth of cut as moche yarneas wyll make a sufficiaunt clothe
As hath byn vfed to be made in tymes pafte And that they lhall
delyu no clothe of ther owen nor of non other mannys ougte of
their howfe} vnto tyme that the serchers of the fame occupacon
wiche be fworne haue fene proved and vewed that hit be suf-
ficiauntlye woven & goode warkmanlhipe theropon to make goode
clothe of And that all fuche pfones as be ferchers & fworne for
the tyme beyng lhall fee eSy clothe drawen ou the beme or it
paffe the weu houfe And yf that they either for lofle of favoure do
not trewly their deutie accordyng to their othes that then thei to
be at fuche fyne as fhall be thowght refonable by the meir for the
tyme beyng & his Councell And what weu fo eu ther be that do
not fend for the feide ferchers of his occupacon When his clothe
[Folio 84a.]
is woven to lee it he or they that doth the contrane therm or in
Any of thefe articles or ordinaunce} beforefeide lhall lofe & paie
275 John Smith was mayor of the town in 1512-3, and dying during his year of
office, John Hilton was elected mayor in his stead.
332 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
as ofte as thei or any of them fo dothe offend xls the oon halfe
therof to be paied to the meir for the tyme beyng as Comyn
trefoure for the towne And the other halfe to be paiede to the
fraternyte of the trynnyte within the chyrche of all holowys of
the lame towne And that no maner pfone off what Eftate degree of
condicon foeu he be that dothe Attempt in Any tyme to come to
the breche or hurtyng of Any of thefe ordinaunce} beforefeide lhall
& paie to the towne xiij8 iiijd with ougt fauoure or pdon as ofte
as they ibo dothe offend in that behalfe Provided alwey that thefe
ftatute} & ordynannce} Afore made take their begynnyng to ftand
in their ftrengith at the ffeft of the purificacon of our blyffed lady
[2nd February] then next followyng And fo from yere to yere for
euer more to endure as it is above feide
ORDINACO FFACT TEMPE JOH'IS HILTON MAIOR AN° R~R HENR"
OCTAUI TERCIO PRO ARTE FFULLORU &C
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF JOHN HILTON MAYOR IN
THE THIRD YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VIII
FOR THE FULLERS' CRAFT &c.]
CFoiio 84b.] [A]t A Comyn femble holden in the Guyhald of the town of
Norhampton the fridaie [igth December, 1511] next before the
feft of feint Thomas the Appoftell in the thyrde yere of the
Reigne of oure foueyne lorde kyng Hen? the viijth by the Aifent
of John Hilton than beyng meire of the fame towne his xxiiijti
Comburge} with all the Cominalte of the fame town ther beyng
jSfent Jt is accorded condecendide & aggreed That no ffuller delyS
nor caufe to be delyued noo clothe ougt of his GoSnaunce} to the
mill vntyll the tyme that the serchers for the tyme haue vewed it
& fene it ou a perche that it be well truely & fufficiently burled
in the payne who dothe to the contrarie to paie xxs. as often as
any of them fo dothe offend And that they sett noo clothe vpon
the teyntor or teyntoris after hit be thibbyd vntill the tyme that
the Comyn Sealler haue ftriken it & fene that it be goode suf-
ficient & true drapeye made And that they drawe noo clothe opon
the teyntor or teyntouris but to even it & to fafhon it not above
3i a yerd at the mofte Apon lyke payne a fore reherfed And if
any of theym fett276
276 The ordinance ends abruptly at the bottom of the page.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
333
ORDINACIO ~p PISTOR TEMPE
RICI WHELAR MAIOR
[A]d hufteng ten? in Guy-
hald ville Norhampton die lune
px poft ffm sci Dionifij Anno r r
Henr octaui decimo p exemiam
difcretioem Rici Whelar tune dc
vift maior Rot>ti Long & Thome
Penrbton it>m Baftio^ & p Aui-
fiamen? ac confiliu Jonis Wattf
Joftis Saxby Joftis Pvyn Jonis
HiltonThome PennyThome Chip-
ley Joftis Walker Witt Bonde &
Rici Dyxfon nup maiof dee vill
& qam plurib} de xxiiijor Com-
burgenfe} ad tune & it»m couo-
ca? cu vnanimi Atfenfu & concefu
omi Artific artf pifto^ ville pdce
Sequens Ordinatio et ftatutum
modo edit9 eft & ftabili? tempo-
ribu} infutnr duratur put in ligua
materna fequitr in hec verba &c
ORDINANCE FOR BAKERS IN LFOHO sja.]
THE TIME OF RICHARD
WHELAR w MAYOR
At a court of hustings held
in the Guildhall of the town of
Northampton on Monday [nth
October, 1518] next after the
feast of S* Denys in the tenth
year of the reign of King Henry
the eighth by the excellent discre-
tion of Richard Whelar then mayor
of the said town Robert Long
and Thomas Pemberton bailiffs
there and by the advice and
counsel of John Wattes John Sax-
by John Parvyn John Hilton
Thomas Penny Thomas Chipsey
John Walker William Bonde and
Richard Dyxson lately mayors of
the said town and several of the
24 burgesses then and there
called together with the unani-
mous assent and consent of all
the workers of the craft of bakers
of the town aforesaid the fol-
lowing ordinance and statute is
now published and established
to last for future times as follows
in our mother tongue in these
wrords &c
That ffor fo moche that non Artificer of the fame crafte nor non Bakers that
of their wife childer nor i^uantf take opon them to Gyff or to fell in xeiii to the
no man9 of place w*in this town nor in the Contrey eny more bred
in tale for a deff9 but xiij penyworthe at the mofte & if ther be
eny of the feid crafte or eny other for them wiche doth the con-
trarie & due pve therof made he or thei that fo offendith to lefe
xxs at euy tyme as ofte as he is take w* fuche defaut the oon EFolio 8«b-3
halffe therof to the maier for the tyme beyng & the other halffe to the
Richard Whelar, or Wheeler, was mayor of the town in 1519-20.
334 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
occupacon moreou it is ordeyned alfo that if eny of the feid Ar-
tificers & eny of their f9unt£ wiche laden his horfe or horfe3
at his houfe w* bred to carie into the Countre by the wey as he
goithe dothe fell off his feid horfe in feynt James ende feint
Edmundf ende or in Coton 278 eny man9 brede either more or leffe
& who fo e3 that fo dothe offende to lefe euy tyme vjs viijd the
halfe therof to the maier for the tyme beyng & the other halfe
to the Crafte And alfo if eny of the feid crafte do receyve eny
man9 greene of corne opon the eny m9ket daie But iff it be bought
in the m9ket the fame daie that he or thei fo receyve it to lefe
vjs viijd at euy tyme that he is take w* defaut the oon halffe
to the maier & the other halfe to the occupacon
md the laft day off November Ao Dm 1556 tempore JoRe Bal-
gey279 maiore Laurenlio Manley Jufliciarijs pacis this ordinaunce
was Revyued for xiij to ye dofen vpon payne abouefeyd as well
whit wheat and horfebred halff to ye mayour halff to the
chaumber &c 28°
ORDINACO P ARTE CARNIFIC
[ORDINANCE FOR THE CRAFT OF BUTCHERS.]
[T]o all trull Criften people to whom this pfent writyng ar to
be holde redde herdde or fee we John Saye281 maire of the town
of Norfit Henr Humffrey Robard Shefford John Solle John Wattis
John Smyth Richard Crifpe & Thomas Parker late meires Thomas
Crown Thomas Crafeld ther beyng Bailliff} w* xxiiij Comburges
and the xlviij" of the fame town of Norftt Ther at ther Comen
alTemble holden in the Guyhald the mondaie [24th March, 1505]
next aft9 the feft of seint Edwarde the kyng The xxu yer of the
reign of King Henr the vijtb Thei haue graunted confermed &
eftabliflhed this jlfent ordinaunce w* diufe articles conc9nyng the
vniSfale wele to the hole crafte of bochers in the feid toun for the
goode fadde Rewle & gounaunce Emongis theym for eu vnder
writen dothe apper The firfte poynte & article is that their fhalbe
chofen ij maifters by xij men of the fame crafte w^n the feid town
to haue oufight of the feide crafte as for oon yere That is to fey
278 Three suburbs of Northampton.
279 John Balgey, or Balguye, was mayor of the town in 1557-8 and 1566-7.
280 This paragraph is written in a later hand.
281 John Saye, or Saks, was mayor of the town in 1505-6.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 335
the vytell -that thei kylle & flee be goode & able to mannys
mete And if any man of the feide crafte doo the contrarie then
hit fhalbe lefull to the maifters and wardens of the feide crafte
to complayne to the maire of the town then beyng apon them
And that none of the feid crafte rebuke ne repve none of the
feide two maifters for the tyme beyng Apon the payne of iijs iiijd
as ofte as thei doo foo offende to the feid maifters or to any of
their fucceifours And the forfeid forfeite devyded equally the oon
halfe to the maire then beyng And the other halfe to pffight of
the feide occupation & light 282 (Jtem that noo man of the feide
Crafte flee noo man9 of fleffhe opon the fondaie till it be pafte
midnyght vppon the payne of eny defawte to paie to the light
& to the maire then beyng xijd) Jtem that euy man of the fame
crafte be redy to come to the maifters of the feide crafte by a [Foli<> 86b-l
refonable warnyng when foo eii the cafe (hall requyre except
that he haue a refonable excufe & caufe that thei maie not
attende appon the payne of euy defaute iijs iiijd the oon halfe to
the maire & the other halfe to the occupacion moreoii J>* noo man
of the feide crafte fewe a nother man of the feid crafte for noo
man9 of accon reall or pfonall w*owte licence of the maifters of
the feide crafte vpon the payne of euy defaute xxs the oon halfe
to the maire & the other halfe to the pfyght of the feid occu-
pacon Provided alwey that noo man of the feide crafte dight
noone old fhepe in ftede of a lambe to the deceyte of the kynges
people vpon the payne of euy defaute to the maire and to the
light xijd furthermore }>* noo man nor noo mannys f9uaunt cafte
noo man9 of offale as lightis longis homes & other anoyable
thyngis be hynde the ftallis nor oon the pawment vppon the
payne of xijd ]>e oon halfe to the maire & the other halfe to the
pfitte of the occupacon And that noo man wyllefully flee no man9
of fwyne oon or other w*in the bochery or ftalles owpenle vpon the
payne of xijd ut fup 282(Alfo that thei flee noo fleflie oon the
fondaie nor kutt noo hole quarter w*otote license of J>e maifters or by
the comaundement of the maire or that a lordis catour9 come to
the toun vppon J>e payne of e3y defaute of xijd ut fup) And o3e
that that noo man lay forth none Jnwardis of beftis on the ftalles
but )>* it be flayne the fame daie vpon payne of euy defaute282 (xijd)
vjd to the light of the feide crafte Jtm that thei kutt noo flefhe
52 These paragraphs have been ruled through in the Liber.
336 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
oon ]>e ffridaie but yf thei fell a quart9 or a fide or a hole beft
vppon the payne of euy defaute to the maire and to the pfyte
of the occupacon xijd 283(moreou that thei fell noo fufiny hogges-
but that thei fend them home whereas thei bought vppon the
payne of defaute to the maire & the occupacon xxs) Provided
alwey }>* none of the feide ffealofhip calle a nother of his fealo-
Ihip knave in anger nor other vnkynde wordis fpeke amonge
them falfe othir wyfe then they ought to doo oone to a nother
vppon the payne of euy defaute vjd the oon halfe to the maire
[Folio 87a.i & the other halfe to the pfytte of the occupacon And yf he
what foo eue he be foo offendyng will not hold his peas at the
commaundement of the mailers he to forfett at eu9y defaute to
the maire & to the occupacon xijd ffurthermore that no man
nor non of their f9auntis bye noo kalfe comyng towarde the
market of Norhampton till it be in the m9ket place wrier
hit mall be Affigned vppon the payne of euy defaute vjd the
oon halfe to the maire & the other halfe to the pfitt of the
feid occupacon Jtem that no man cary noo fleffhe in lomes
oon the payne of vjs viijd the oon half to the maier & the
other halfe to the feid occupacon ne Cafte it in the Rever
nor in non other place but there as hit malbe Affigned vppon
J)e payne of eu9y defaute xijd ut fup And that eu9y man ley owte
their ikynnes & hiddis in the m9ket place vppon the payne of
eu9y defaute vjs viijd the oon halfe to the mayer & the other
halfe to the occupacon Alfo that no man bie no man9 of mortf
befte vppon the peyne of eu9y defaute xxd ut fup And on that
that noo kylle pockey mepe ne noo fowe bryme vppon the
payn of eu9y defaute xxs the oon halfe therof to the maire
the other half to the pfight of the feide occupacon moreou9 that
noo man fley nor kille noman9 of borepigge nor ley it oon the
ftalles vppon the payne of eu9y defaute xijd vt fup And that noo man-
ley noo fleffhe owte when the maiflers hathe leid it in vppon
the payne of ev9y defaute vjd ut fup And alfo noo man kutte
ne fell noo flefhe before iiij of the cloke in the mornyng vppon
the peyne of eu9y defaute vjd ut fup Jtem that noo man holde
owpen his Ihoppe noo lenger than ix of the cloke at night in
fomer And till viij of the cloke in wynter vppon eu9y defaute
vjd to the maire and to the occupacon And that man nor noo-
283 This paragraph has been ruled through in the Liber.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 337
mannys f9uaunt calle noo man woman nor childe ]>[ comys to
the ftalles to bie vitells from his neighbours borde to his borde
vppon the payne of eu9y defawte vjd ut fup 2ai(And that thei kylle
no man9 of fleilhe oon the faturdaie vppon the payne of eu9y
defaut xijd ut fup) Allb the xij men hath ordeyned that the olde
maifters {hall requyre the crafte to come togedur oon ]>e tuefdaie
after martyllmafe daie And thei there to make the xij men a
trewe accompte for theire tyme And there the xij men to chofe
ij other men maifters for that yere that is to come And if the
olde maifters faile & come not to their affemble as vppon this
forfeid above lymytted Than the xij men that ordenyed that the
feid olde maifters mall lefe to the maier & to the occupacon
xxs Moreou9 that noo man nor non other of their f uantis fell
any man9 of vitell oon the fondaie vppon payne of euy defaute
iijs iiijd ut fup Provided alfo that noo man fett a nother mannys a
wourke till he be clerely from his mafter uppon the payne of
euy defaute vjs viijd ut fup ffurthemor that noo man haue noo
comen gaderer of kalves but only their owen f9uantes vppon the
payne of iijs iiijd ut fup 284(Alfo that noo man kepe noo fleffhe
in his howfe nor in the ftalles that wafe flayne oon the thurfdaie
to be founde oon the faturdaie withowte hit be in falte on the
peyn of euy defaute xijd ut fup) And that noo man of the feide
occupacion take noo man9 of howfe ne pafture ou a nothe of his
brethern heddis vppon the payne of euy defaute therof made xxs
ut fup Provided alwey that it is ordenyed that the maifters &
wardens of the feid crafte of bochers to rere levy & to receyve
all man9 of fynes & trefpaflis as is above fpecyfied in the for-
feid ordinaunce} And thei to be Accomptaunt for their feide yere
that thei occupied vnto the maifters & wardens that fhall fuccede
theym the next yer af? that And to delyue there money & ftoke
in to their handis by fore the feide xij men of the feide occu-
pacon Savyng oonly the oon halfe therof for to be ref9ued & [Folio 88a>]
delyued to the maier for the tyme beyng vpon the payne to
paie to the feid maire mafters & wardens for the tyme beyng
xxd Alfo the maisters for the tyme beyng doo not execute &
correct truly euy defaute accordyng to ther othe vppon of eu9y
defaute therof made to the maire & to the light of the feid
occupacon xxs &c This Acte & ordinaunce to be regeftred and
284 These paragraphs are ruled through in the Liber.
33$ NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
writen in the regefture in the town off Norhampton Amongis
other actis & ordenaunce there to remayne in ftrenght and effect
for eumor to Endure &c
ORDINACO FACT TEMPE ORDINANCE MADE IN THE
JOHIS GOLDWYER MAIOR ANNO TIME OF JOHN GOLDWYER 285
RR HENR vij VNDECIMO MAYOR IN THE ELEVENTH
YEAR OF THE REIGN OF
KING HENRY VII
[S]ciatis nos conceffiffe & You may know that we have
hac carta nra confirmafle maiori granted and by this our charter
balliuis & burgenfe} eiufd viii have confirmed to the Mayor
Norhampton omes lifcta? fftnchef9 Bailiffs and Burgesses of the
& cofuetud eiufd vift tangen? same town of Northampton all
infra libta? jpdct concrnan? ut the liberties franchises and cus-
pat3 fbfcrip? toms to the same town apper-
taining within the liberty afore-
said concerning as is plainly
written below
Wher it is prouyded ordyned enacted & eilablifhed for euer to
endure by diufe & many noble kyngs of Englond in tymes
patted hathe graunted ratified & confermyd right honorable
chartoure & confirmations off f^unchefis lifcties frecuftomes &
vfages to the town of Norftt appteyng for the cof9uacon of the
kyngs peace within the feid town & good and fbftanciall gy-
dyng good Rule therin to be mayntened obf^ued & kept Accor-
dyng to the pfuacn of the boroughe & of all thenhabitanate3
and dwellers therin And for the reftfulnes & quietenes of the
fame toun & borough The kyngs moft noble grace of his gracious
memory & of his bountyvoufnes hath g*unted all the forfeid
pmysed ganted faunchelis lifoties coftomes & vfages to the feid
toun of NorRt belongyng in as Ample forme as any of his noble
B8b<] pgenitours kyngs of Englond in tymes hath graunted herebofore
To the meire baftis comburgei} & comynaltie of the forfeid toun
of NorRt There to be oon maire hedde gou9noure and ruler
there to be his Juftice of his peace Clerke of his m^ket & the
kyngs Exchecour w*in the fanches & Unties of the fame toun &
285 John Goldwyer's name does not appear amongst those of the mayors of
the town ; he probably took the place of Robert Butler, during part of 1495-6.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 339
borough of NorRt & the Jlcyncts of the fame And there in the
kyngs abfence to rewle gouen all the inhabitaunts & dwellers
in the fame according to the lawes & frecuftomes of the feid
toun of Norfit And moreoii euy man that is inhabitaimt & en-
fanchefed ther is fworne vppon a boke before the maire for
the tyme beyng that he lhalbe ffeithfull & lawfull to our fouayne
lord the kyng of Englond & to his heires kyngs of englond
& Justifiable to the maire & baiftis of the feid town of Norfit
for perjury
that now be hath ben & ihalben the frecuftomes & vfages of the & ^obedience
to the mayer.
fame toun lhall maynteyn fuftene to my power as more largely
it Apperith at the takyng of his othe &c And there what pfon
or pfones that is faunchefid & wyll not be obedyent to the maire
ballife} & meir brethern as is affore expreiTed declared by his othe
made he rennythe in piure & is wyllfully for fworne vppon a boke
and for his piure it is punyfmable & fynable by the difcrecon
of the feid maire & of the advice of counfell to hym fworne to
acelfe levy rere fuche punyffhment & fyne as he fhaldo therin by
the advice of his counfell expedyent for the fame ffor where the
maier for the tyme beyng of his yere is the kyngs Chauncheler ther
to determyn all fuch piurie Jniury & wrong affore hym don or
vfed And if any pfone or pfones malyciouily of rancor malys or
evyll wyll do make Any confederacy & conuenticle} breche or
impedyment of Juftice agenit the maire baillyffe} & the counfell
of the feid toun of NorM by worde dede or writyng Rennythe
in dempuyte & damage to Agrevous Amcyment as lhalbe adiuged
by the advice of the maire the King's Juftices of his peace &
the Kings crowners w*in the feid [town] of NorM for his Jmagy-
nacon & fymple demeanour as mall accorde with Juftice in this
behallfe in teftifyeng of the p'mylTe} 286
JN DEI NOIE AMEN . Tenore In the name of God Amen [Folio 89a.]
prefencu .pateat vniulis qd cum By the tenor of these presents
int magrm Rog9m de Bowdone let it be clear to all that whereas
ppetu vicar between Master Roger de Bow-
done 287 perpetual Vicar of the
286 Breaks off in the middle of a page, space being left on two leaves which
has been partially filled up in a later hand with the three next entries.
287 Master Roger de Bowdon became incumbent of Hardingstone in April, 1281,
and immediately took proceedings against the inhabitants residing in the Liberty
of Saint Leonard's, to recover his tithe. — Bridges' Northamptonshire, vol. i., p. 363.
Y 2
340
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pochialis ecce de Hardyngfthorn
Actorem ex pte vna Ac Magrm &
ffres lepfo^ Sci Leonard! exta
Norhampton reos ex Al?a sup
oblatonib} manualib} et minutis
decimis de[h]ortis habitantm in-
fra ?minatom eiufdem domus Sci
leonardi in dca pochia de har-
dyngsthorn Site . quas idem vi-
carius ad se de iure coi afferuit
ptin^e pte al?a illas ad Capellam
Sci leonardi ex longiffima con-
fuetudine fpectare debere in
con?rium aflerente . coram nofo
Olyuero pmiffione diuina Lincoiij
Epo auc*te ordinaria cognoicen-
tib} queflio uteretr. tandem poft
Aliqua litis c?tamina
parish church of Hardingstone
plaintiff of the one part and the
master and brothers of the lepers
of Saint Leonard without North-
ampton defendants of the other
part concerning the manual ob-
lations and the small tithes of gar-
dens of the inhabitants within the
boundary of the same house of
Saint Leonard in the said parish
of Hardingstone situated which
the same Vicar has claimed to
belong to him by common law
while the other party claims to
the contrary that they ought to
pertain to the chapel of Saint
Leonard from very long custom
before us Oliver 288 by Divine
permission Bishop of Lincoln en-
quiring by our authority ordinary
the question was discussed At
length after sundry legal con-
tentions
[Folio 89b.] ORDINACIO FACT TEMPE JOHIS BROWNE MAIOR ANNO TERCIO RR
EDWARDI SEXTI
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF JOHN BROWNE MAYOR289
IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG EDWARD VI]
At affemble holden in the Guyhalde the xith daye of October
[1549] in the yer of or sou9ayn lorde abouefaide by the faide John
Broune maior Laurens Manley John Motte Richard Wilkynfon
Nycholas Ramb Henri Mcall Richard Lowres John Deightnen
Anthonye Dryand Chriftofor Darnes & Henri Clarke the faid
maires brotherne the xxiiij Coburgeif & all the hole comynaltye
288 Dean Oliver Sutton became Bishop of Lincoln in 1280. He completed the
"Angel Choir" in 1280. He died in 1300, and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.
This record ends abruptly in the middle of a page.
289 John Browne was mayor of the town in 1550-1.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 341
of this lame tovvne at whiche aifeble holden this act & ordinaunce
to ftond to thend of the worlde in full ftrength vertu and effect
as folowith
That no fraunchifed pibn that dothe Jnioye the lifctes of this
tovvne or her efts shall frome henffourth wtbout lycens of the
mayor for the tyme beyng Jmplede another being lykewiie
fraunchiied in anye of the kyngf maieftyes courts out of this
towne vpon the payne for eu9y tyme so offendyng cont9rye to
this act to forfett hees & paye to the pfett of the chamber of
the toun xls of laufull monye of englande w*out anye favour
ORDINACIO p PORCIBZ TEMP'E DICT JOHIS BROUNE MAIOR
[Folio goa.]
[ORDINANCE MADE FOR PIGS IN THE TIME OF THE
SAID JOHN BROWN MAYOR]
At aflemble holden the xjth daye of October [Friday, nth
October, 1549] in the said iijde yer of or saide sou9ayne lorde
kynge Edvvarde the Sixte &c by the saide John Broune maier
& his brethrin the xxiiiju & comburgeff & the body of the same
towne at which airemble this acte folowyng was ordeyned &
ftablifihide to raymayne in Recorde amongeft other
That ffrome and after the feaft of Saynt Thomas thappoftell
next comyng no fraunchyfed pfon of this towne brewers & bakers
except shall kepe vpon the comynes of this towne or put befor
the commu herde called the hogheard but iiij hoggf & the brewers 0^l£ogges°upon
& bakers vj vpon payne for eu9y hogge so taken ether before the comon'
the heard or vppon the commus the owner therof to paye vnto
the chamber of this sayd towne as comine treafu to the same
ijs as often as the be taken with suche default ether by infor-
macon or otherwyfe with oute redemcon
This ordiunce is made as well for hoges fowes and we]>-
ninge pigf
[A RELEASE TO EDMUND FREARS FROM ALL MUNICIPAL OFFICES]
Uniu9fis Xpi fidelibus ad quos To all the faithful servants CFoiio gob.]
pfentes ire puen9int Henricus of Christ to whom these present
Neale letters shall come Henry Neale 29°
290 Henry Neale was mayor of the town in 1540-1, and 1553-4.
342
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
maior ville Nornton & tota c5itas
eiufdem ville Saitm in dno Sem-
piternam Cu Edmunds Frears
pewterar Comburgenf} nofter
pditus in Subficliu et Releua-
men diu^ibru cuftagio^ ac p Suf-
tentatione & factura pauimento
in villa pdicta iam p nos tande
facto decem libras bone et le-
galis monete Anglie nobis dedit
& contulit in effectu Nou9itis
nos pfatos maiorem et cditatem
debitam recompeniatoem dicto
Edmundo Frears pewterer quantu
in nobis eft fieri volentes cdcef-
fifle eidem Edmundo p pntes qd
ipe ad officiu maioratus baliui
conftabular camarij ville pdcte
p eadem villa p nos & Succef-
fores nros burgenles dice ville
nullo modo impofteru Sit electus
Sed quod idem Edmudus de eif-
dem ac de oibus alijs officijs
dicte ville ptinens imppetuu Sit
quietus & omninoexoneratus per
pntes Jn cuius rei teftidniu Si-
gillu officij maioratus et Sigillu
num comune pntibus fecimus ap-
poni Datu apud Nortfcton vice-
fimo die Junij anno regni Ed-
wardi Sexti Dei gra
mayor of the town of Northamp-
ton and the whole commonalty of
the same town sends greeting
in the Lord for ever Whereas
Edmund Frears pewterer our
fellow-burgess disposed towards
the help and relief of divers
costs and for the sustaining and
making the pavement in the town
aforesaid now at last made by us
has given to us ten pounds of
good and lawful money of Eng-
land and has bestowed it for the
purpose You must know that
we the aforesaid mayor and com-
monalty wishing that due recom-
pense should be made to the said
Edmund Frears pewterer as far
as we can have granted to the
same Edmund by these presents
that he shall under no circum-
stances hereafter be elected to
the office of mayor bailiff con-
stable or chamberlain of the
town aforesaid for the same town
by us and our successors bur-
gesses of the said town But that
the same Edmund shall be for
ever quit and altogether exonera-
ted by these presents from the
same and all other offices belong-
ing to the said town In witness
whereof we have caused to be
placed on these presents the
seal of the office of mayor and
our common seal Dated at
Northampton the 2oth day of
June [1553] in the seventh year
of the reign of King Edward
the Sixth by the grace of God
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 343
Anglie & frauncie Regf fidei of England and France King
deffenfor et in terra Ecciie Anglj Defender of the Faith and upon
et Hifcnie Su$mi capits Septimo earth Supreme Head of the
Church of England and Ireland
291 Hit is to be conceyvyd and remembrid that of olde tyme [Foiio9ia]
dewe and Accuftomyd eu9y toune tyjte owte to be A Cartefull
and A Carte lode . And so eu9y carte so to be charged owith to
be a tonne ty}te that is xcxc After vxx and xij for the hundre &c
And fo firfte to begynne that where A botell of haye weye
but . ij li . after that rate . The oftiller lhall wynne in the hundrid of
the cartefull . howeibo evir he bye hit . And so of eu9y hundred
he fhall make . ijs iiijd . And so that lode and Cartefull be this
weight so weyn owte and made lhalbe of the Cartefull . Aftur
the rate beforefeide xlvis viijd .
Allfo Aftir the Rate of ij li and A halfe the botell of haye
so made The hundrid xxij . And yete in eu9y hundrid ij li weight
in fupplufage that is xl li in the lode . And that is in money
viijd . And fo Aftir that Rate he fhall make of the Cartefull
xxxvijs iiijd .
Moreou aftir the Rate of iij ii the botell of haye so made the
hundrid is xviij . And so yete in eu9y hundrid in fupplulage of
weyght in the hole lode xlli weight that is vjd . And so the
botell o haye of iij li Aftir that rate lliall make xxxs . vjd . And |_F0iio gib.]
yete ovir that in the hole lode in Iupplufage iiij li of weight
Moreou the Botell haye of iij ii and Ahalfe the hundrith con-
teynith xvj And in euy hundrid so meche . And so the botell of
haye be the Olteler made the lode is xxvjs viijd
Moreou the Botell haye of iiij ii the hundrid therinne con-
teynyth xiiijd And so the botell of heye of iiij li conteynyth in
the cartefull xxiijs iiijd .
291 A folio has been cut out before this page and jthe handwriting of the first
part of the book recommences here.
344 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Allfo the Botell of haye of iiij ii & Ahalfe the hundryd con-
teynyth xijd And so in eu9y hundrid so meche . And 3ete is in
eu9y hundred infupplufag iiij ii of haye The whiche drawith to
iiijxxii of haye And that is ixd.And so the botell of iiij ii & halfe
Aftyr the rate makyth xxs ixd oft
Morou the botell of haye of vii the hundrid drawith to xjd
And 3ete infupplufage in eu9y hundred ij ii And that extendith
to xlii of haye. That is aftir the Rate in the hole lode iiijd
And so the botell of vii of haye drawith in the lode xviijsviijd.
[Folio gaa.] Allfo the botell of haye of v ii and Ahalfe the hundrd drawith
to xd . And so }ete in fupplufage ij ii of haye the which extendith
to xlii in the hole aftir the rate before reheriid to iijd ofc And
3ete more ovir j ii And Ahalfe of haye infupplufage . And aftir
the rate the Cartefull xvjs xjd ot»
Moreovir the botell of haye of vj ii contenyth in the hundrid
ixd And 3ete in the fupplufage in the hundrid iiij ii so that
extendith iiijxxii of haye in the hole that is vjd . ofo. And 3ete in-
furplufage Abofe that in haye ij ii not recouyd . And so the cartfull
Aftir that rate the hole lode xvs vjd oft
Moreovir the botell hay of vj ii and Ahalfe is viijd oft and
3ete infupplufage in eu9y hundrid . j ii and Ahalfe And so that
extendith in the hole to xxx ii of haye and that aftir the rate
is iijd . And 3ete infupplufage iiij ii of haye And so aftir the rate
A cartfull xiiijs iiijd
Moreo3 the bottell hay of vij ii the hundrid conteynyth viijd
the whiche extendeth vnto Aftir the Rate before Reherfed the
Cartfull of hay to xiijs iiijd293
[Foiio 93a/i JNQUISICO SCDM STATUTU WINTON
[INQUISITION ACCORDING TO THE STATUTE OF WINCHESTER293.]
MlLLNERS
flyrfte the Affis of the Miller is that he fhall haue noo man9
292 A few scribbled words in a later hand follow here on folio g2b.
293 This inquisition is not according to the statute of Winchester, I3th Edward I. ;
but it appears to be an extended version of the later Ordinance for Bakers and
others, of later date.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 345
Mefurys at his mylle but yf they be fyfed and sealed Accordyng
w* the kyngf ftandarde . And he to haue of eu9y Buflhell of
Whete . A . quarte for the gryndyng . And yf he fette hit Another
for the fettyng . And he lhall haue of A buflhell of malte A
pynte for the gryndyng . And yf he fette hit Another for the
fettyng . And that he water noo mannys Corne to yeffe the worfe
for the better . Nor he lhall haue noo hoggys gefe ne dukkeys
at his mylle . Nor man9 of pultre but . iij . hennys & A cokke .
And yf he doo the contarie of any of thes . his fyne is at eu9y
tyme xld . And yf he wylnot be ware by . ij . warnyngf the . iij .
tyme he to be Juged to the pylorye &c
BAKERS
The Affis of a baker is . vjd . hying and vjd . lowyng in the
price oi A quarter Whete . ffor and he lakke an ownce in weight
of an ot» or jd lofe he to be am9ced at xxd And yf he lakke
an ownce & 3i he to be amerced at ijs vjd . Jn all man9e
brede fo lakkyng . And yf he doo bake ou9e that Affis he to be
Jugged to the pylorye
BREWERS
The Affis of a brewer is xijd . hying . And xijd . lowyng in
the price of a quarter malte . And eumore Ihyllyng to fferthyng .
ffor when he byeth a quarter malte for ijs then he fhall fell [Folk) 93b']
agalon ale of the befte for an halpeny And to make xlviij
galons of a quarter of malte . And when he byeth A quarter
malte for iijs . iij qd . A galon iiijs iiij qd vs . v . qd vjs vj .qd vijs
vij qd viijs viij qd A galon ale and no ffeether . And that he fett
non Ale Afale tyll he haue lent aftyr the Ale Talters to see
that yt be good and Abull . And as ofte as he doyth the con-
tarye he is to be Am9ced at vjd . And that he fell non but bye
mefure fyfed and fealed . And that he felle a quarte of the befte
ale withyn hym for oft .And yf he doo the contrarye to eny of
theife . Or and he fell not aftyr the price of malte he is to be
Am9ced the ifyrfte tyme xijd the fecounde tyme xxd . And yf he
wylnot beware by ij warnyngf the iijde tyme he to be Jugged
to the Cukkyng ftole And aftyr to the Pelorye &c
BOCHERS
The Affis of A Bocher is that he lliall noon excife taker
more then of the fhyllyng . jd . but the hedde the gadder the in-
ivardf and the fete . ffor the fkynne and the talowe lhall goo
346 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
with the carcas of all fuche catell that fedyth. And of fuche
catell that fedyth not . he fliall haue but the hedde and the
ikynne.Alllb he shall floe no Bulles ffleffhe but yf he be bayted
nor noo Cowe that is Abullyng ne of great calfe nor noo ewe
that is Arammyng ne great with lambe nor noo fowe that is
Abrymyng nor grete w* pygges nor noo maner corupte ffleffhe.
And yf he do the contftrye he to be Amerced the fyrfte tyme
The feconde tyme xxd The iijde tyme xld And yf he fell any
[de]fectiffe ffleflhe he to be Jugged vnto the pelorie &c
FFISSHERS
The Aflife of A ffyflher is that he mall be noon excefle
taker more than in xijd . jd . nor that he forftall ne regrate no
market nor noo hows noo man9 ffyflhe but that he fette yt evyn
in the playne m9ket place nor that he water noo man9 ffyffhe
twye} nor that he fell noo [dejffectiffe ffifihe And yf he do the
contarie to eny of theife he to be Amerced the fyrfte tyme xijd
The ijde tyme xxd The iijde tyme he to be iugged vnto the Stokkes
openly in the m9ket place &c
COKES
The Aflife of A coke is that he fell noo man9 ffleffhe ne ffyfme
but yf yt be good and fefonable for man both in fethyng & Roftyng
and bakyng nor that he fethe rofte ne bake noo man9 mete
twye} ffor and hit be proved his fyne ys at eu9y tyme xld. And
yf he wylnot beware the iijde tyme to be iugged vnto the
pylorie &c
INHOLDERS
The Aflife of an Inholder is that his menfures be fyfed and feled
that he fellith his prouander bye. And to haue of eu9y buffhell
puandyr jd wynnyng ou9e the m9ket goyth And his botell hey of
A halpeny fliall wey vij ii And his litter ffree or ellis to wey A
penyworth of horfe brede kepyng the Ass though he bye alode
of hey for xiijs iiijd And A ffagot of wode for an halpeny flialbe
A yerde of length and iij handfull and an halfe Abought And
a ffagot of A penye by handfull Abought kepyng the lenght of
a yerde . And he fhall felle A potte of iij pyntes of the befte-
Ale for jd. And yf he be A brewer to fell as [ajnother brewer
dothe And that he bake noo maner brede wHn hym to selle And.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 347
yf he do the contrarye to eny of theife ffyrfte he to be Am9ced
xijd . the fecounde tyme xxd . The iijde tyme xld . And fb forth And
yf he kepe any bawdrye his fyne is vjs viijd. And yf he wylnot
beware by theife wornyngf he tobe Jugged to the pelorye And
to for fwere the Town
TAUERNERS
The Affife of a Taiiner is that he be no excefle taker more
then of A galon of White wyne or Redde wyne ijd wynnyng in
eu9y galon. And of all other fwete wyne . iiijd . in A galon. And
that he lette no man9 wyne Afale tyll he haue fente aftyr the
Officers of the Town to tafte hit And to fee that hit be good
& Abull wyne and that his vefell be gawged and foo merked
on the hede} . And ther he to be fworne Affore the Officers of
the Town what it cofte hym . And aftyr that to felle . And that
he fell not but by mefure fyfed and fealed . And that he make
nor medyll noo maner of wyne within his Tauern And yf he do
cont're of theiie he to be Amerced the fyrft tyme . xijd . the ijde
tyme xxd The iijde tyme xld And foo forth. And yf he felle eny [Folio
defectyfe wyne his Tauern dore to be fealed yn And to make
Afyne to the lorde of the ffraunches And he to be Jugged vnto
the forme of the ftatute
BERE BREWER
The Affife of A bere Brewer is that he make no maner of
Bere but of good fluff e And that yt be holfom for mannys body.
And that his veffellis byn of An syfe. And that his barellis holde
xxxvju gallons his kylderkyn xviij galons And his vyrkyn be ix
galons. And he to felle aglon of the befte bere for A peny And
A galon Sengylbere for ofc. And that yt ftand and fpurge iiij
dayes at the lefte And that he lette no man9 bere Afale tyll
he haue fente aftyr An Officer of the town to tafte hit. And fee
that yt be good and Able And that he felle noo maner bere
but by mefure filed and fealed And yf he do contrary in Any
of theife . ffyrfte to be Amerced xijd the ij tyme the iijde tyme
xld And yf he felle any [dejfectyfe bere he to be Jugged to the
Pelorye iij merket dayes &c
TALOW CHAUNDELER
The Affife of A Talowgh chaundeler is that fell falte Otemele
fope and other diufe chafer that his weightis & mefure} be fyfed
348 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and fealed and a trewe beame for when he byeth j ii Talough
for a ot> then lhall he tell j ii of candyll for jd And that is A
ffertyng for the weke & for the wade Another for the warke-
manihip. And right foo as talough hieth and loweth foo to fell
his Candyll. And he do the contarie. he to be [a]m9ced the firfte
tyme xijd the ijde tyme xxd the iijde tyme xld And yf his ftuffe
be nought and lake of his weight And felle not Aftir the price
of Talough he to forfeyte that is [dejfectable and to be Jugged
to the forme of the ftatute abovefeide
SPICEZ
The Affife of A fpycer is that he haue no man9 weightys
but that they be fyfed and fealed and trewe beame And that
he fell by noo homes nor by no Ayme of honde nor by noo
man9 subtelte to difceyve the people And that his fpice} be good
and clene garbeled And that he that doth contrarye in any of
thei} his fyne is at eu9y tyme xld And yf he wolnot beware
by ij warnynge the iijde tyme he tobe Jugged Accordyng to the
forme of the ftatute &c
WEUEZ
The Affize of A weu is that he wey by no ftones nor by no
man9 weightes but yf they byn fyfed and fealed and trewe beme
nor that he fell no mannys thrummys lynyn ne wollen . And yf
he do contrarie he to be Am9ced and Jugged vnto the forme
of ftatute
TANNER
The Affife of a tanner is that he tanne no Shepis ledder
getys ledder deris ledder horfe ledder ne houndes ledder nor that
he tanne no ledder to felle but that yt be thorough tanned .
And he do contarie to eny of thei3 his fyne is at eu9y tyme
vjs viijd.And to forfette that is forfe table And yf he wylnot be-
ware be ij warnyngf the iijcle tyme he to be Am9ced and Jugged
vt fupra &c
CORDEWENEZ
The Affife of A Cordewener is that he make no man9 of
g6a.] Shoes nor botes but of good netez ledder and that yt be thorough
tanned and thorough coryed And that he corye no man9 ledder
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 349
\\Ttin hym . And yf he do contarie to eny of thei} his fyne at
e3y tyme vjs viijd. And to forfette that is forfetable And yf he
wylnot beware by ij warnyngf he to be Jugged Accordyng to the
forme of ftatute &c
CORIOUR
The Affife of A Coriour is that he corye no man9 ledder
but that hit be thorough tanned . And that it be coryed w* fufficient
ftuffe . And hit to be lerched and feyn by an Officer of the Town
to fe that yt be good and Able . And that his leddyr be goode
and able well and trewly coryed . And yf he do contraie to any
of thei} to be Amerced and Jugged to J>e forme of ftatute &c
WHITTAWER
The Affife of A whittawer is that he make nor Tawe noo
maner ledder but Ihepis ledder getis ledder derys ledder horse
ledder and hounde} ledder . And that yt be made of fuffycient
ftuffe . And yf he doo contarie he to be Am9ced and Jugged
Accordyng to the forme of the ftatute
MERC9 DRAP GROCER SMYTH
The Affife is that no mercee drap grocer smyth nor no
maner Crafty man by nor felle no man9 thyng that pteynyth
eyther vnto weight and mefure but if ther weightf and mefures
be fyfed and fealed Accordyng to the kyngys ftandarde And he
that doth contrare to eny of thei} to be Arrived and Jugged
Accordyng to the forme of ftatute
REGRATER
Alfo the Affife is that no man9 of man nor woman fhalnot
forftall ne regrate noo man9 of merket of eny maner thyng that
Ihulde come therto neyther within the town Nor with owte where
thorough the merket fhulde be the werfe And the pore comens
hurt . To by at the feconde hande . And he that do contrary to
eny of thei} to be iugged vt fupra &c
Sacrm fcrutatof correi a° octauo regine Elizabethe 294
[The oath of the Searchers of Leather the 8th year of the reign
of Elizabeth]
You shall fweare that you lhall well and faithefully affift the
294 This oath is written in a later hand.
350 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
f^chere apointed for the ferche of leyther and wares made of
lether acording ly to the acte of parliam* made in ye fyvethe
yere of the Quenes matie reigne towchinge tannars curriors fhomakers
and other artificers occupienge the cuttinge of leyther to youre
best knoledge and cuninge Ib helpe you god and by the holly
content^ of this booke &c
Jofie Balgey295 tune
maiore et Jorie
Saxby Coi Clico
a° Dni 1.5.6.5.
97a.] ORDINACIO FACT TEMPE LAURENCIJ WASSHINGTON MAIOR
ANNO REGNI REGIS HENRICI OCTAUI xxxvij0
[ORDINANCE MADE IN THE TIME OF
LAURENCE WASHINGTON296 MAYOR IN THE 37™ YEAR OF THE
REIGN OF KING HENRY vm.]
At the coraon aflemble holden at the Guyhalde in the towne
of Norhampton the xxvjth daie of Noueber [1545] in the xxxvij th
yere of the raigne of our souaine lord henri the eight bi the
grace of god of england fraunc yrelande kynge defender of the
faith and off the church off England and alfo of yreland the
sujme hedde by the examinaton and the difcrite diftreton of Laurens
Waffhington Maire of the saide towne of Norhampton with the
hole condicent and agrement of his cobretherne the xxiiif1 co-
burgelfes and the hole bodi of the faide towne That wher the
bakers of this borow hathe and dothe send fourth bred in to the
country to a great nuber on horfbak euy daye that which is
thought to be a great dearthing of the corne that comyth to
this m9kett hit is therfore fully codyftendyd and agreyd by the
meyre his brethern the xxiiij coburgenfys and the hole bodye
off this faide towne that from the vijth daye of december next
folowyng that no baker of this faide towne shall sende fourth
of this towne in to the countrey but one horfe lodyd w* brede
eu9y daye vppone the payne of eu9y default so taken to forfett
lees and pay vjs viijd the one half therof to the meyre forthe
tyme beying and the other half to the vfe and pfett of the
chamber of the said towne
295 John Balgey, or Balguye, was mayor of the town in 1557-8 and 1566-7.
296 Lawrence Washington was Mayor of the town in 1546-7.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 351
And farther that no myln9 nor loder to the myll beying [FOHO 97b.]
frenchifed or othirwyfe from this daye fourth to Refort into the
m9kett place vppone the markett daye wher anye man9 of grayne
is to be folde w'in this borow vppone the payne aforefaid that
is to faye vjs viijd the one half therof to the mayre for the
tyme beying and the other half to the vfe and profett of the
chamber of this towne
And farther that no howiholder w*in this borow beying fran- ^
chyfed or otherwyfe frome henfeforth do suffer anye man9 of
grayne to be fett vp in his howfe of anye foryner or other from
m9rkett daye to m9kett daye wherby it is thought that corne
dothe kepe the heir Jife vppone the payne to forfett leys and paye
vjs viijd the one halfe therof to the meyre for the tyme beyng
and the other halfe to the vfe and pfett of the chamber afore faide
And farthermore that no baker chaundler nor anye other pfone fi
of this towne carry fourth anye tallow candelie of this towne in to
the contrith to be folde vppone the payne of eu9y default so taken
that he or they forfett leys and paye xxs the one halfe to the
mayer for the tyme beyinge and the other halfe to the vfe and pfett
of the chamber of the forfayd towne
And that no chaundeler nor any other of this towne or of [Folio 98a.i
the countryth do fell anye candellf within this towne by the
penyworthe but that that the fayde jd worth lhall agree after the
pounde vppone the payne for eu9y defaulte fo taken to forfett
leys & paye vjs viijd the one halfe thereof to the mayr for
the tyme beyng and the other halfe to the vfe and profett of
the chamber aforefayd
Provydid alwayes that no baker aforefayd shall carry forth of
this towne but one horfe lodyd w* bred eu9y daye and the
faide horfe to travele but once a daye vppone the payne afore-
fayd for eu9y horfe fo taken
ORDINAUNCE MADE THE TYME OF RICHARD WiLKYNSON297 [Folio 98b-]
MAYOR IN THE xxxvnjth YERE OF THE RAIGNE OF
or sou9AYNE HENRY THE vnjth
At the aflemble holden at the Guyhalde in the towne of
297 Richard Wilkinson was mayor of the town in IS47-8.
352 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Northamton the xvth daye of October [1546] in the xxxviij h-
yere of or fou9ayn lorde afforefaide by the dyfcryte examynacon
of Richard Wilkyfon mayre of the towne afforefayd with the
codyftend & agrement of his qui brethern the xxiiij11 Coburgeffes-
& the hole body of the fayde towne
That eu9y brewar withe in this towne ffrome henfforthe mall
fell xiiijn galons of ale at the fattf fyde for the dofen so that hit may
be xij gallons of oldre ale when it is fethed & thane for the fame
xviijd & nott aboue vpone the payne for eu9y fuche faute
fo taken to fforefett leffe & paye iijs & iiijd the one half to the
the typler J
mayor for the tyme beyng & the other di to the vie & profytt
of the chamber of the faide towne
And if the iaide brewars do fell leife than before mecyoned
ye to forfett lefe & paye for eu^y gallon so lakkyng iijd the
one halfe to the mayer & the typler to be allowed notwith-
ftondyng & this penaltye to be levyed once in the weke
And further that all bere brewers tha brew to fell mall fell
a kynderkyn contaynyg xviij galons of the beft beare for xxiud
& a kynderkyn of the second beare for & that the fel not
aboue this jlfe vpon the payne for eu9y tyme fo offendyng to
forefett lefe & paye iijs iiijd thone halfe to the maire for the
tyme beyng & the other halfe to thufe and pfett of the cham-
ber aforfaide
And if the faid beare brewer do not fell fo manye galons
for the kynderkyn that then for ev^y galon foled out to forfett
lefe & paye iiijd thone halfe to the mayer & the typler to be
allowed notw^ondyng
JURAMENTA HOIS ADMISS IN LlBTATEM
[THE OATHS OF A MAN ADMITTED INTO THE LIBERTY.]
Ye shall swere that ye shall be good true and lauffull vnto
owre sou9ayne lord kinge henrye of englond and to his heires
kynges obefauns and obediens vnto the mayre and bailiefff that
now be and shall be off this boroughe in all thingf lawfull off
nor thoon The franchifes cuftomes and vfages theroff ye mail
mayntein And the borugh kepe harmeleffe in that you is Alfo
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 353
ye fhall be contrybutarye in all maner off chargf w*yn this
burgh As fumons watches contrybutions tafkes tellagies lott and
skot bere you pte as a other ffreman lhall ye shall colour no
foreyn goodes wherby the kyng myght leefe his cuflom or his
avauntage 298 (Ye shall kepe the kingf peace in your own pfone)
ye fhall knowe no gaderyng conventicles nor confpyrocies made
ageynft the peace But you fhall warne the mayour theroff or his
mynyfters and let yt to youre power All theife poyntes and
articles well & trewlye ye fhall hold and kepe acordinge to the
lawes vfages and cuftomes off this borough to ye vtermoft off
yd powre So helpe you god and holy dome and the contents
off that book
MEMORANDUM at a Counfell holden at the Guyhalde of the
town of Norhampton the XXth day of Aprill [1510] the Reynge
of kyng Henr the viijth after the Conquefl the fyrft by the dif-
creflion and Counfell of John Parvyn 2" then & their beyng
mayer of the same town Henr Humffrey Robard Shefford John
Wattis John Smyth Richarde Cryfpe John Saye & John Saxbye
late mayours of the fame town for many and diuerfe vnfittyng
langage & fedicious wordis wiche Wiiim Whitfelde flecher of
the same town hath hade and hath fpokyn to the xlviij pfones
of the same town beyng at a Comon femble holden at the Guy-
hald of the same town the wich wordis heraf? more playnly
doth aper & be recordyd in the Regefter of the same town for
to be knowen that whatfoev9 the forieide Wiftm Whitfeld seyth
by dyfperyng of any man9 man that it shulde be takyn for no
trowth nor for non effect
IN PR I MIS he seid that their wafe a writ wich he callyd a writ
dormond and it wafe made by the advyfe & aflent of matter
Richard Empfori & no other of kyngis counfell knowyng therof
& he saith that it is of no effecte but as a forgyd thyng and of
no Auctorite wich wordis wer as miche as in hym is to haue sett
all this Boroghe at a great Jnconuenyence and trobull & yet is
except good Reformacion be had therfor
298 The line "Ye shall kepe the kinges peace in your own persone " has been
struck through in the Liber.
299 John Parvin was mayor of the town in 1510-1 and 1525-6.
Z
354 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
JTM he sayth that their is nother the maier nor noon of his
brethern fhall haue of hym nother sewt nor f9uice and as for
metyng with the maier he woll not do his dewtey nother to hym
nor yet to the kyngis Armys but thus he mifbehauyth hym felfe
lyke no trew townys man
[Folio iooa.] JTM he thretyth and maliflyth matter John Saxby beyng the
maier of the same town in xxiiij yer of kyng henr vijth and he
feith that he woll ley to his Charge for suche caufis wich he
fholde doo in the same yer that he wale maier and he wolde
caufe hym to spend xxtt powns therfor morou the seid Wiiim
hath compleyned to my lordie Dakers of the same M John Saxby
& informyd hym that he wolde not alowe such certificatt nor
writyng as cam owst of J>e NortR for record of suche pfonis as
wer prefentis at the kyngis lettis for scottis moreou he seith
the fame seafon M John Saxby beyng maier & kepyng the kyngis
court within the same borowgh fhulde kepe Robyn Whoodf
court
JTM now of late he hath had sedicious langage a yenft matt9
Wiiim Cutler f9gant woofe solle god pdon which wordis wer
thus he seid that if the forfeid M Wiiim Cutler had lyved he
wolde haue handild hym so that he fhuld haue had the worfe
ende of ]?e ftaffe he saith he wolde haue fond a meayn to haue
goten a lett9 of the forfeid Wiftm Cutlers owen hond writyng &
when he had goten it he wolde haue sowgt ynglond but he
wold a fond a nother man that fholde haue writyn like f same
hond & tnen he wold haue forgid a let? in J>e wiche let? he
wold haue put in treafon ayenft J>* kyng and this same let?
fhold haue byn cafte in to the kyngis chamber and then matter
Wiftm cutler to haue ftonde at his own Joberdey &c
ioob.] SACRM MAORI ARTIS TELLATAR
[OATH FOR THE MASTER OF THE TILERS' CRAFT]
Ye fhall in your Crafte called Hyllyars and fklaters Crafte
w*in the Toun of Norhampton dewly and trewly ferche and o3
fee All thofe pfones that occupyen hyllyars Crafte that they fliall
doo trewly in there occupacon their warke & trewe ftuffe suf-
ficianly wk>wte defawte defravde or gyle by the o3fyght of the
mailr°s for the tyme.And that the feide maiftirs foo chofen &
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
355
electe And to make ther othe before the meire in the Guyhalde
And Alllb that ther ihall noo man of that occupacon occupy the
feide Crafte in the feide Toun Butte the maifters of the feide
crafte do certyfie & make Relacon to the meire forth with
whethir the partye or partyes be fufficiant & Able pfones to doo
mennys werke trewly And ffurthermore that pfon or pfones of
that occupacon to take noo man9 of warke in greate vnto the
tyme he be A ffraunchifed & iworn That then ye Ihall prefente
hym or theym that dothe the contrary to the meyre As often
as they foo be founde offendyng what he trefpalith wtoute Any
concelment in any parte therof . So god me helpe & All Seyntes
& be this boke
300 sic ex confenfu totius Artis elec-
tos & pfect) ifcm pfentar sub pe!l
xxu den9io^ &c
Hec ftatuta p Gar-
dianos inf^ius n5-
atos A maiore & eius Ricus
conlilio fuerunt petita I fflours
die lune px poft fm Rot$
Cone virgis Glriofe & Rovs
conceffa &c Gardiani
jldica peten? }
Et die Jouis px poft fm conuf9
Sci Pauli fuit Rofctus Rovs ari-
dict exon^atus A supus $dic? &
loco ipius Roberti fuit Thorn
Bury Sherman ad iftm onus
so chofen and appointed by the [Folio Ioia'3
consent of the whole craft there
to present under a penalty of 20
pence &c
These statutes by-]
the guardians below
named from the mayor
and his council were
demanded on Monday Richard
next after the feast of Flours
the Conception of the Robert
Glorious Virgin [8th Rovis
December] and gran-
ted &c the guardians
demanding the afore-
said
And on Thursday next after the
feast of the conversion of Saint
Paul [25th January] Robert
Rovis beforesaid was exonerated
by the high officers aforesaid
and in the place of that Robert
Thomas Bury Sherman was elect-
)0 The ordinance of this folio commences abruptly, a leaf or leaves having
been omitted in binding.
Z 2
356 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
eius p maiorem Admiff9 ad jldic- ed to the same duty by the
tos defect siqui fuunt cu Rico Mayor admitted to supervise
fflours pdic^ supuidendf vfq5 fm the abovenamed deficiencies (if
sci Micnis px seqns & ad hoc any) with Richard Floures above
Jura? named until the feast of Saint
Michael next following and sworn
to the same
ioib.] TEMPE RICI MEYE MAIORIS ANNO H vjw vjto "p RETONC
[IN THE TIME OF RlCHARD MEYE MAYOR 301 6TH HENRY THE
SIXTH FOR SHOEMAKERS]
flirft it is ordenyd that all the maifters of Shermanfcraft within
the ffraunchife of Norhampton dwellyng mull Enfemble to gedir at
a serten day Amonge hem Afigned That is to witte all Sowin
day [2nd November] at the White ffreris m And ther to chefe too
wardens for the yere next folowyng and jlfent hem to the mayre
for the tyme beyng the monday next folowyng And ther tobe sworn
to hafe and Receyfe power sufficient to governe and oufee and
serche all the maifters of the feide Crafte whethir any defaute} be
founde amonge hem or may be the same yere soo next folowyng
The secounde is that the seid maiftres for the tyme beyng and for
them that fhullcome in tyme comyng fhull hafe pleyn and fufficient
powere that whan they fynde Anotable defaute in the feide crafte to
do it to be Amendid by the feide maifters for the tyme being
ihulde do to belevyed os meche mony os the owner of the cloth
fhulde paye to the fherman for fheryng of the same vnto the tyme
that the feide cloth of the same Sherman be well and treuly and
werkmanly wrought And that the same Sherman so trefpaffyng
fhall be punyfchid be the meire for the tyme beyng that is for
to sey xxd to the town And other xxd to the feide Crafte And
forthermore to the maires s^ieaunt iiijd for his laboure of fechyng
hym Jnne os oftyn os the feide Sherman is founde in fuche defaute
The thirde is that noo ftraunge man of the feide Crafte be the
301 Richard Meye or Mey was Mayor of the town in 1427-8.
302 The priory of the Carmelites or White Friars stood near Grey Friars, to the
north-east of the town. It was founded in 1271 by Simon Montfort and Thomas
Chitwood.
day o
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 357
y or be the weke wyrking from this day forwarde fliall not
occupye nor sette vppe any shoppe in the forfeide Crafte opynly [Folio I02a']
nor preuely withowte that he be proved Able of connyng & abull
of his owne propur ftuffe to werke with be the seide maifters
for the tyme beyng 303
The fourte is that euy man of the feide Crafte at his begynnyng
of his settyng vppe fhall paye to the feide toun xxd and to the
feide Crafte xxd
The fyfte is that no man of noon othir Crafte fhall mayntene
coloure nor supporte be no meane noo maner of man of the feide
crafte to wyrke in the feide Crafte . within the feide ffraunchife
withoute licence of the feide maifters for the tyme beyng vppon
the peyne of A Cs to be payed to the toun os ofte os it for-
tunes to fall &c304
The sixte is that no flierman within the feide ffraunchife dwellyng
from this daye forwarde ihall ocupye be no maner meane fful-
lerfcrafte for diuerfe deceytes of the seid Crafte} nor noo man9
ffuller within the feide ffraunchife dwellyng fhall occupye be no
maner of meane Shermanfcrafte within the seid ffraunchife vppon
the peyne of Cs to be payed to the toun os ofte os Any of hem
be founde gylte &c80*
The vijth is that what man9 man of the seid Crafte is Rebell
and wilnot obeye to the feide statutes aboue feide be hee Arrefted
be the maires s9ieaunt and comitte to p'foun yeldyng to the
feyde s9ieaunt for his labur iiijd os ofte os it fortunes to fall . And
that the feide trefpaflbure be not delyu9ed from prifoun withoute
A fyne of xld to be payed to the toun and to the Crafte xx d
withowte any Releife for his Rebellyon
The viijth is that if the seide ftatute} be not obferued kepte nor [FOHO io2b.]
ou9feen be the maifters for the tyme beyng than the seid maifters
303 The following words have been added to this paragraph by a later hand :—
" in payne of xxs halfe to the maier and halffe to the craft."
304 The following words have been added to each of these paragraphs by a
later hand :—" halfe to the maier & halfe to the crafte."
358 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
fchull he punnyfchyd be the maire and his councell so that the
maires grace be not ffauorabely doon to hem in noo wyfe &c
Alfo it is ordeyned by the feide Crafte that euy howfholder of the
feide Crafte within the feide ffraunches dwellyng fchall be at all
tymes redy to obeye to the wardeyns of the feid Crafte for the
tyme beyng to come at theire somouns at any tyme . whan fo eu
it mall lyfte theyme to calle the Crafte to gedur . ffor any mater
that fhall be lefull for theym to comyn or purpoie for the wele or
for the worfchipe of god and of the toun or of the Crafte Jnne the
peyne of the price of a pounde wax to be levyed withoute any
Relefe . But ther be a refonable excufe . And that euy fhoppe holder
fhall pay euery 3ere to the repacion of the torches iiijd . And euy
Jorneyman that worcheth in the feide Crafte ou9 xiiij dayes mall
pay to the feid repacons of the torches ijd . And the Maifters
that fuche a Jorney man worcheth with mail anfwere to the
wardens of the feid ijd . Jf it be fo that the Jorneyman departe
owte of the toun And it oon payed if the wardeyns afke it or he
departe And ellys it mall ftonde in ther owne nekkys &c
[Folio io3a.] Md Qd XXVIIJ0 DIE OCTOBR ANNO RR HENRICI SEPTIJ Xmo
CORAM ROGS BUTTELER MAIOR RlCO EMSON RECORDATOR
IN CAPELLA CORPOR XPI
[MEMORANDUM THAT ON THE 28TH DAY OF OCTOBER [1494]
IN THE TENTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KlNG HENRY VII
BEFORE ROGER BUTTELER 305 MAYOR AND RICHARD EMSON 306
RECORDER IN THE CHAPEL OF CORPUS CHRISTI 307]
Hit is ordeyned & prouyded alwey that no baker w*in this
Town from henfforward fhalnot kepe no man9 off Oftery to re-
ceyve noo moo horfe but iiij horfe at the mofte in the payn of
xxs at eu9y tyme that he is takyn w* defaute
Allfo moreou9 that noo Jnholder w'in this town from henfforth
No Jnn bake
mansbbred n°r ^a^ bake no man9 of horfebrede nor manny's brede w'in his
Jnne vpon the payn of xxs at eu9y tyme that he is takyn the
defawte
305 Roger or Robert Butteler or Butler was Mayor of the town in 1495-6, and
member at the Parliament held 4th Henry VII.
306 For note as to Richard Emson see page 312.
307 « Within the parish-church of All Saints was the Gild in honour of the body
of Christ ; founded by Henry Gayshoo, John de Geytington ; John Home, and
others."
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
359
PRO DOMO FFRM CARMELITAR
DE MONTE CARMELI NORHT
Cum ad primi motoris laudem
giriofi immobii simplicia singula
in eo£ Speris motu p ipm cir-
cular! continue & non difformi
mota fperice continue mouentr
ne tocius vniu^li deftruccio in in-
ftanti quaii fubito sequeretr eciam
ac infra eo^dm omi Speras terra
de se non mouens ymmo semp
ftans ab ipo summo opifice mir-
abili? tanqm centrum situatur .vt
fup eius ftatuta formola ipm
primu mouens immobile omi
Alunlicu conditorem vniu9fe crea-
ture sup omia laudarent . Jri omi
rerum natura nobil microcolimus
naturanaturata .qui ad ymaginem
prime caufe centrum cuius eft
vbiq} & circumferencia nufqm
ipum} congratulando s uire pci-
pue factus eft et gatuite optando
sic inceffante manciparet mani-
fefte i5 sup ifto concluditur Qd
pditor eft ipe veritatis qui non
libere pnunciat veritatem in
tempe vicitatis necefiitatis vt
iufticie non dominet1 iniquitas 53
FOR THE HOUSE OF THE
BROTHERS CARMELITE
OF MOUNT CARMEL308 AT
NORTHAMPTON
Whereas to the praise of the
first Mover glorious and immove-
able all simple things in their
spheres are moved by Him in con-
tinuous circular motion and not
by irregular spherical motion
lest the destruction of the whole
universe should follow as it were
suddenly in an instant and below
the spheres of all these the
earth not indeed moving of itself
ever standing fixed is set by Him
the greatest Artist wonderfully
like a centre so that for His fair
appointments Himself the first
Mover immoveable the Founder
of all things all creatures should
for all things praise In the nature
of all things the noble microcosm
of nature which after the image
of the first Cause whose centre is
everywhere and circumference
nowhere was principally made
to serve by shewing gratitude
and by freely desiring with such
importunity should deliver mani-
festly so that it is concluded
from that That he is a betrayer
of the truth who does not freely
utter the truth in time of near
necessity that iniquity may not
domineer over justice but ever
[Folio
308 The priory of the Carmelites, or White Friars, stood near the Grey Friars,
to the north-east of the town. It was founded in 1271, by Simon de Montfort and
Thomas Chitwood.
360
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
semp ad di laudem subdatr fal-
fitas veritati hinc eft qd Thomas
Sale maior ville Norhampton
fedis Apoftolice atq} impai No-
tarius pucua sine sue anime detri-
mente iana intentione mente
oculata ppendens [qu] omodo
mundo fenefcenti ipe indies ad
pcliua fuftinenda set deftabili?
inclinat . matura . g1 deliberatione
& pito& conlilio volens di cultu
Augmentar atq3 cu debita t*n-
quillitate religiolb^ iuxta vires
honorem fouere & pturbatonem
iustitia fuadente infra Burgum
regiu ppetuis tempib} eradicare
penitus & explantare Quocirca
ad decorem domus dei & quietem
Religiofo^ viro£ ffru ordinis
beatiffime dei genitricis Marie
de monte Carmeli in pochia sci
Michaelis ArcRili NorM in maner-
ioreali quondam bone memorie
dni Simonis de Mote forte olim
Comitis Leycestrie comorantiu
cunctis & finglisxpi fidelib} innotef-
cimus plentiu sub tenore . Quali?
Anno dominice incarnationis
Miftmo qdringentefimo tertio et
regis nri Henrici fexti poft conqm
Anno
to the glory of God falsehood
may be subject to truth Hence it
is that Thomas Sale mayor of
the town of Northampton of the
apostolic and imperial see a
notary public without detriment
to his own soul with sound in-
tention considering secretly in
his mind now that the world is
growing old he himself is daily
inclining to sustain things totter-
ing and unstable therefore with
mature deliberation and with the
counsel of skilled men wishing to
extend the worship of God and
with due tranquillity to cherish
the honour of men devoted to re-
ligion according to his means
and with the persuasion of justice
to root out disturbance within the
royal borough for all time to come
and utterly to remove it Where-
fore for the comeliness of the
house of God and for the
quietude of the men of religion
the brothers of the Order of
the most Blessed Mary the
Mother of God of Mount Carmel
in the parish of S* Michael the
Archangel at Northampton dwell-
ing in the manor once belonging
to the Lord Simon de Montfort of
good memory formerly Earl of
Leicester to all and singular
faithful servants of Christ we
make known under tenor of these
presents how in the 1403rd year
of our Lord's Incarnation and in
the second year of our King
Henry the Sixth after the Con-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
361
fecundo penultio die mentis ffeb-
ruarij ad inftantiam & Rogatum
Magri NicRi Cantelowe sacre pa-
gine pfeflbris Prioris ad tune
domus Ac Conuentus ffrm pdco£
ac alio^ pbo£ fideliu cu cetu ven9-
abili viro£ difcreto^ videit JoRis
Wellis Thome Warwike Rici
Wemmys JoRis Havle Galfridi
Balde JoRis Ryvel Thome Stotuf-
bury JoRis Hancok JoRis Bern-
hill JoRis Baldefwell JoRis Bert-
ram RaShi Pairenham Rici Wilby
Thome Sutton cois s9uientis
Thome Tyllyngton JoRis Launden
comis ciici Ac alio^ multo^ ad
hoc spiali? vocato^ in forma iuris
auditis Rationib} & allegationib}
vilis q} euidencijs & diligen? ex-
aiatis put iuftitia decuit decla-
ramus & manifeftamus apte qd
muri ffrm Jnoiato^ conexi noui?
it>m edificati & ante murale seu
botras vt fuppofito^ ale Auftrali
ecclie ffrrn jldco£ ad honorem Dei
giriofe q3 virgis matris eius i"bm
eildm s9uientiu Annexa funt &
fuunt continue de fundo & de
eencia loci fundationis jpdce
Eo^dm igit1' Prioris q3 eius confrm
quest on the last day but one of
the month of February at the
instance and petition of master
Nicholas Cantelowe professor of
Holy Writ then prior of the tp°lio
House and of the Convent of
brothers aforesaid and of other
good faithful men with the
venerable company' of discreet
men namely John Wellis Thomas
Warwike Richard Wemmys John
Havle Geoffrey Balde John Ryvel
Thomas Stotusbury John Han-
cok John Bernhill John Baldes-
well John Bertram Ralph Pas-
senham Richard Wilby Thomas
Sutton common serjeant Thomas
Tyssynton John Launden com-
mon clerk and many others
specially called for this purpose
in form of law having heard
the reasons and allegations and
having seen and carefully ex-
amined the evidence as in justice
was right we declare and openly
make known that the walls of the
brothers before-mentioned newly
erected and built there before
the wall or buttress as a support
to the south aisle of the church
of the brothers aforesaid to the
honour of God and the glorious
Virgin His Mother who there
serve the same are and have
been extended continuously from
the ground and from the essence
of the place of the foundation
aforesaid At the special instance
therefore of these same persons
its prior and brothers aforesaid
362
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
inftantijs spialib3 eifdm conceditr
iftud memoriale trnscribi & in
Regiilerio pani
Hec bylla indentata fca iiij*°
die Maij anno ff- E iiif1 decimo
in? Ricm Burford & JoRem Afte-
ley Camerarios ville Norhamp-
ton Et Joftem Spriftowe ac Tho-
mam Wileman Collectores in
quar?io Auftrali de quod subfidio
dco dno Regi conceff ad sexa-
ginta valectos inueniendf in
Jtin^e suo com Lincoin &c teftatr
qd ijdm Campari] ad diufas vices
receperunt de eifdm Collectorib}309
it is granted that this record be
transcribed and placed in the
registry
This bill indented made on
the 4th day of May in the loth
year of the reign of King Edward
the Fourth between Richard Bur-
ford and John Asteley chamber-
lains of the town of Northampton
and John Spristowe and Thomas
Wiseman collectors in the South
Quarter about a certain subsidy
granted to the said Lord the
King for the finding of sixty
yeomen in his journey through
the county of Lincoln &c it is
certified that the same chamber-
lains on different occasions re-
ceived from the said collectors
[Folio I04b.]
MATERIA PETEND AD
PLIAMENT P NORHAMPTON &C
Dand & concedend maiori
ville Norhampton Burgeniib} &
fucceiibrib} suis imppni omnimod
ffines Redemptoes amerciamen-
ta et exitus coram quibulcumq}
Juftic feu maiorib} & Alijs Cuf-
toct pacis infra regnu Angi de
Aliqua pfona fiue pfon infra vil-
lam NorRt comorant seu como-
ratur de & fup Aliquib} offens mef-
prifion negligens ffelonijs
MATTER TO BE DEMANDED AT
THE PARLIAMENT
FOR NORTHAMPTON &c
To be granted and conceded
to the mayor of the town of
Northampton to the burgesses
and their successors for ever
fines of every description re-
demptions penalties and out-
goings before whatsoever justices
or mayors and other keepers of
the peace within the realm of
England concerning any person
or persons sojourning in or in-
tending to sojourn within the
town of Northampton concerning
and about all kinds of offences
misprisions negligences felonies
309 This ordinance breaks off abruptly in the middle of a page.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
363
tranfgrefiion materijs querei de-
fee? cauiis & Articlis et omib}
illis que ad Officiu Juftic siue
Cuftod pacis ptinent forii'faciendf
affidendf vl Adiudicandf quo-
quomodo seu ex quacumq} caufa
& ea ad opus & vium burgeniium
ville pdce p solutoe feod firme
eiuidem ville leuar pcipe &
comitter valeant Abfq3 Ali-
quib} extractib) inde in Sccio
mittena et Abfqs impeditioe
Aliquali Et ilia ffines Redemp-
coes Amerciamenta & exitus
quibufcumq} locis fuint foriffact
Maiori & Burgenfib} ville Nor-
hampton qui p tempe fu9int cer-
tificari et Allcribi faciant infra
meniem px sequ poft sententiam
in hac pte adiudica? pea &c
trespasses matters quarrels faults
causes and articles and all those
things which appertain to the
office of justice or keeper of the
peace assigning forfeits assessing
or adjudicating in any manner or
whatsoever cause and for the
sending them to the exchequer
without any deductions and with-
out any delay that they may have
power to levy receive and commit
them to the use and benefit of the
burgesses of the town aforesaid
by payment of fee farm of the
same town And those fines re-
demptions penalties and out-
goings in whatsoever places they
may have been forfeited they
shall cause to be certified and
ascribed to the mayor and bur-
gesses of the town of North-
ampton for the time being within
the month next following after
the sentence adjudicated in this
matter under a penalty &c
[CHARTER OF 2ND EDWARD iv., 31°
loth July, 1462.]
dei gra Rex Anglie & ffrancie
dominus Hibernie omnibus ad
quos pfentes ire puen^int Salutem Jnfpexi- .
mus cartam dm R nup Regis Anglie
^ Scdi poft conqueftum fcam in hec verba
Ricardus dei gracia Rex Anglie ffrancie & dominus Hifcnie
Archiepis Epis Afcfcib} Prioribus Ducib} Comitibus Baronib}
310 This Charter, v/hich inspects and confirms the grants of nth and 4ist
Henry III., 2yth Edward I. 8th Richard II., 3Oth Henry VI., and 38th Henry VI.,
is hereinbefore printed in English, amongst the charters on page 92.
364 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Juftic Vicecomitibus Prepofitis Miniftris & omibus Balliuis & fideli-
bus fuis falutem Jnfpeximus quanda cartam Celebris memorie
domini & quondam Regis Anglie fit Regis H progenitoris noftri
fcam Burgenfibus ville noftre Norhampton in hec verba Edwardus
dei gracia Rex Anglie Dominus Hifcnie & Dux Aquitain Arch-
epis Epis Atrbatib} Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus Juftic Vice-
comitibus Prepofitis Miniftris & omibus Balliuis & fidelibus fuis
falutem Jnfpeximus cartam quam Celebris memorie dominus H
quondam Rex Anglie Pater nofter fecit Burgenfibus Norhampton
in hec verba Henricus dei gracia Rex Anglie Dominus Hibernie
Dux Norman & Aquitan Comes Andeg Archiepis Epis Abba-
tibus Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus Juftic Vicecomitibus Prepo-
fitis miniftris & omibus Balliuis & fidelib3 fuis falutem Sciatis
nos conceffifle & jlfenti carta nra confirmalfe Burgenfib} nris de
Norhampton qd nullus eo£ piitet extra muri Burgi Norhampton
de aliquo plito preter plita de tenuris exterioribus exceptis
monetar & miniftris nris Conceffimus eciam eis quietanciam murdri
infra Burgum & inportfoka et qd nullus eo£ faciat duellum &
qd de piitis ad coronam ptinentibus se polTunt difracionare fe-
cundum confuetudinem cium Ciuitatis London et qd infra muros
burgi illius nemo capiat hofpicium p vnu vel p lifoacionem Mare-
fcalli Et qd omnes Burgenfes Norhampton lint quieti de theolomo
& leftagio p totam Angl & portus maris et qd nullus de miferi-
cordia pecunie indicetur nifi fc3m legem quam nuerut Ciues nri
London tempore H Regis Aui noftri et qd in Burgo illo in nullo
piito fit Mefkeninga et qd hufting femel tin in ebdomada tene-
antr Et qd terras & tenuras & vadia fua & debita fua ofnia iufte
neant cuicumq3 eis debeat & de terris fuis & tenuris que infra
[Folio iosb ] Burgu ^unt rectum eis teneatur fcdm confuetudinem Burgi Et de
omibus debitis fuis que accomodata fuerint apud Norhampton &
de vadiis ibidem fcis piita apud Norhampton teneantur Et fi quis
in tota Angl theolonum vel confuetudinem ab hominb) Norhamp-
ton cepit poftqm ipe arecto defecerit prepofitus Norhampton
namium inde apud Norhampton capiat JNSUPER ECIAM et emen-
datoem illius burgi eis conceffimus qd fint quieti de Brudtoll & de
Gildwit & de yerefyeue & de ftotale Jta qd ppofitus Norhamp-
ton vel aliquis alius Balliuus ftotale non faciat has predictas
confuetudines eis conceffimus & omnes alias libertates & liberas
confuetudines quas nuerunt Ciues nri London quando meliores vel
liberiores huerunt tempore predict! H . Regis Aui nri fcdm lift-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 365
tates London & leges Burgi Norhamptofi QUARE VOLUMUS &
firmiter precipimus qd ipi & heredes eo^ hec omia predicta
hereditare heant & teneant de nofo & heredib5 nris Reddendo p
annu Centum & viginti libras num9o de villa Norhampton cum
omib} ptinen fuis ad Sccam nfm in termino fci Micftis p manu
ppofiti Norhampton Et Burgenfes Norhampton faciant Jpofitum
quern voluerint de fe p annu qui lit idoneus nobis & eis hoc
modo fciit qd predicti Burgenfes Norhampton p coe confiliu vil-
late fue eligant duos de legaliorib} & difcretionib} Burgenfibus
ville fue & jlfentent eos p fras fuas patentes capitali Jufticiar
nro apud Weftm qui bene & fideliter cuftodiant jlpoiituram ville
Norhampton & non ammoueant1" qamdiu fe in balliua sua bene
gefferint nifi p coe conlilium villate fue vollumus etiam qd in Quatuor
eodem Burgo Norhampton p c5e confilium villate eligantr quatuor
de legaliorib} & difcretionib} hoib3 de Burgo ad cuftodienda piita
corone nre & alia que ad nos ptinent in eodem Burgo & ad
vidend ppoiiti illius Burgi iufte & legitime tractent tarn paupes
qm diuites ficut carta diii Johis Regis patris nri quam inde
fcent teftat rationabiliter Hlis TESTIBUS ven9abilib3 prib} Jofce- [Foli
lino Bathofi R Sar Epis Hufoto de Burgo Comite Kant Jufticiar
nro Wiftmo filio Warini Radulpho filio Nicfei Rico de Argent
Senefcall nris Henrico de Capella & alijs dat p manu ven^abilis
pris R Cicefter9 Epi Cancellar nri apud Weftm fextodecimo die
Marcij Anno regni noftri vndecimo Jnipeximus etiam quandam
aliam cartam quam pdicus pater nofter fimiliter fecit Burgenlib5
Jdcis in hec verba Henricus dei gra Rex Angt dns HiM Dux
Normann Acquit & Comes Andeg Archiepis Epis A"bt>ib3 Priori-
bus Comitib} Baronib} Juftic Vicecomitib} $pofitis miniftris &
omib} Balliuis & fidelib} fuis sait Sciatis nos concefmTe & hac
carta nra confirmaffe Burgenfib} nris Norhampton qd ipi & eo£
heredes imppm heant returnu omi bruiu nro£ tarn de iumtionib}
Sccij nri qm de aliis Burgum predcm & Irbtatem eiufdem Burgi
tangentib3 Et qd ipi reipondeant p manus fuas ad Scaccm nrm
de omib3 debitis sumoniti5b3 & demandis ipos tangen? Jta qd
nullus vie aut alius balliuus vel minift9 nr decetero ingrediatr
^dicm burgum ad aliquas diftricti5es sumtes aut alia facienda que
ad eo£ officiu ptinent nifi p defectum eo^dem Burgenliu vel
heredum fuo£ Et qd Reant Jnfangentef et qd nullus eo£ impli-
tetr exta muros burgi Norhampton nifi de tenuris forinfecis aut
etiam de aliqua tanfgreffione fca in eodem Burgo nifi sup re ius
366 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
nrm vel pfonam nam tangente Et qd dci Burgenfes non con-
uincantr p aliquos forinfecos sup aliquib} appellis rectis iniuriis
tanfgreffionib3 criminib} calumpaniis aut demandis eis impolitis
aut imponendis fet solummodo p comburgefes fuos nifi de aliqua
re tagente communitatem jpdci Burgi & tune in cafu illo de-
ducantr Scdm libertates ftias approbatas & hacterms vfiitatas
Et qd nullus mercator tempore nundinar eiufdem Burgi cum
fuis mercandifis nifi de licencia & voluntate balliuo^ eiufdem
burgi put fieri debuit & confueuit temporib} pdeceffor nro£ Re-
gum Angl & nro Et qd polTint diftricionem facere infra Burgum
pdcm p debitis fuis ficut hactenus fieri debuit & confueuit
[Folio I06b.] CONCESSIMUS ETIAM EIS qd fi aliqui eo£ vbicumq} in regno nro
teftati vel in teftati deceflerint heredes eo£ bona ipo£ defuncto^
plenarie neant quatenus dci heredes ronabili? monftrare po^unt
bona ipa fuiffe dcosj defuncto^ Et qd ipi aut eo£ bona non aref-
tentr alicubi in regno nro nee ipi bona ilia amittant p aliqua
tanfgreffione s9uientum fuo^ Et qd vti polTmt lititatib} fupadcis
conten? in hac carta nra quicumq3 voluint licet aliquib3 tempo-
rib3 eis vfi uon fuint Concedim8 etiam eis qd ipi & eo£ heredes
Reant omes lititates ipis prius conceffas p x:artam nram & p
cartas ^deceilb^ nro£ Regum Angi ficut eis ronabili? hucufq3
vfi funt Quare volum3 & firmi? pcipim8 p nofc & heredib3 nris
qd pdci Burgenfes & eo^ hereds imppm Reant lit>tates pdcas Et
phibem8 fup foref feuram nram ne quis eos conta hanc conceffionem
nram in aliquo diftrubet vel moleftet Hijs teftib3 Galfrido [Geoffrey]
de Le3iun & Wiftmo de Valence frib3 nris Henr de Bathofi
Pho Luuel Magro JoUe Manfell Wiftmo de Grey Wal?o de
Merton Nicfto de fco Mauro Walkelmo de Ardern Petro Eue-
rard & aliis da? p manu nram apud Westm9 decimo octauo die
Januar anno regni nri quadragefimo primo Nos autem concetfbres
jldcas ratas Rentes & gratas eas p nobis & heredib nris quantum
in nofc eft Jdcis Burgenfib3 & heredibs fuis ac aliis succefforib5
fuis burgenfib5 eiufdem ville imppm concedim3 & confirmam8
put carte jpdce ronabili? teftantr Conceffimus etiam p nofo &
heredib3 nris Burgenfib3 ^dcis qd ipi heredes ac fucceffores fui
pdci fingulis Annis imppm ad feftum fci MicRis elig9e poifmt vnu
maiorem & duos balliuos de se ipis & ipm quern fie eleg9int in
maiorem 5fentent ad Scaccm nrum infra octab eiufdem fefti qui
tune ibm ^ftet sacrm de hiis que ad officiu maioratus ville ^dce
ptinent fideli? exequendis qui quidem maior & balliui oinia piita
Irbtaterr
• ., i
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 367
Irbtatem ville pdce tangentia teneant & exc9ceant put p ballivos
eiufdfn ville temporib} retroactis fieri consueuit Hijs teftib} Ven -
abilib} pribs A Dunolm J Wynton & S. Sa3 Epis Henrico de Lacy
Comite Lincoln Gwydone Comite War? Octoue [Otto] de Grandi-
fono Waltero de Bello campo Senefcallo Hofpicij nri Wifto le Brun [Foli°
Petro de Taynton & aliis dat p manu nram apud Cantuar9 vice-
fimo feptimo die Maij Anno regni nri vicefimo feptimo Nos
autem conceffiones jldcas ratas Rentes & gratas eas p nofc &
heredib} nris quantum in nobis ell p9dcis burgenfib3 & heredib3
fuis ac alijs fuccefforib} fuis Burgenfib} eiufdem ville imppfn
concedimus & confirmamus ficut carte $dce fonabiliter teftantr
Preterea volentes eifdem Burgenfib3 gram in hac pte fac9e
voiorem conceffimus eis & hac carta nra confirmauim8 qd licet
ipi vel eo^ antecelTores aliqua vel aliquib3 lit»tatum vel quietan-
cia£ alquo cafu em9gente hactenus plene vli non fuint ipi tamen
Burgenfes heredes & iucceffores fui Burgenfes eiufdem ville
Irbtatib5 & quietanciis pdcis & ea£ qualt dece?o plene gau-
deant & vtantr abfq3 impediment© iiri vel heredum nro^ Juftc
Efcaeto^ Vicecomitu aut alio^ Balliuo^ leu Miniftro^ nro^ quo^-
cumq3 Et infup in releuatoem ville jpdce Volentes ipos Bur-
genles ac heredes & fuccellbres fuos pdco^ ampliorib3 refpi9ce
fauorib3 Irbtatum conceffimus eis & hac carta nra confir-
mauim8 p nofo & hered nris qd ipi neant cognitoem omi piito^
tarn qua£cumq3 affifa^ qam alio^ plito^ quo^cuq3 infra villam Guyhaid
pdcam & fuburbum eiufdem em9gentiu tenendf coram Maiore
& balliuis dee ville p tempore exiften in Gihalda ville jpdce
imppm et qd Maior dicte ville qui p tempore fuit imppfn
in villa Jdta & fuburbiis eiufdem neat cuftodiam affife panis vini
& ceruifie ac correctoem & punitoem eiufdem vna cum finib3
am9ciamentis & aliis pficuis inde puenientib3 in vfum C5itatis
ville &~fuburbio£ ^dco^ conutendis Acetiam cuftodiam affife ac
fupuifum menfura^ & ponde^ in villa & fuburb jpdcis tarn in
Jfentia nra qam in abfencia nra & heredum riro^ Jta qd Maior
dee ville qui p tempore fuit dca menfuras & pondera fupuideat
& ea que falfa inuen9it comburi & deftrui & alia legalia & iufta
deputari & confignari faciat nee non t*nfgreffiones quos in hac pte
inuen9it debite puniat & caftiget tarn in abfentia qam in p9fencia [Folio
nra & heredum nro^ quotiens opus fSit & fibi ratonabili? fore
viderit faciendf Et qd Maior itm p tempore exiftens imppfn neat
poteftatem tarn in huiufmodi pfentia qam abfentia inquerendi &
368 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
cognofcendi de forftallatorib3 & regratarijs carnib} & piffib} pu-
tridis viciofis & alias incompetentib} in villa & suburbiis jldcis &
fup hiis punitioem debitam faciendi ac gufouacoem correctoem &
punicoem pmiifo^ fimul cum finib} foriffctuis am^ciamentis & aliis
pficuis inde puenien? in vfum Coitatis ville & fuburbio^ jldco^
firailit conutendis Jta qd ciicus de mercato feu alius minilr0 nr
vel heredum riro^ fe de pmiffis feu aliquib3 pmiffo^ feu aliquib}
ad officiu clici de mercato fpectantib} fiue ptinentib} in villa
suburbiis jldcis nllatenus intromittat Hijs teftibus ven^abilib} pribj
. W . Archiepo Cantuar totius Anglie Primate R London W
Wynton Th Exon Epis JoRe Rege Caftelle & Legionis [Leoni]
Ducis Lancaftr Edmundo Comite Canterbr [York] Thoma
Comite Bukyngham Anunculis firis Cariffimis Rico Arundell
Hugone Staff Comitib} Micfee de la Pole Cancellar Hugone de
Segrave Thes nris Jofie de Monte Acuto Senefcallo Hofpitij nri
& alijs Dat p manu nram apud Weftfn quarto decimo die Junij
Escaetor Anno regni nri octauo JNSPEXIMUS etiam iras patentes H fexti
nup de fco & non de iure Regis Angt fcas in hec v9ba Henricus
dei gra Rex Angt & ffrancie & Dominus Hifonie Omib} ad quos
Rentes Ire puen^int Saltm Sciatis qd cum nos confiderantes
quali? hdies ville fire Norhampton p feodi firma eiufdem ville
annuatim penes nos graui? on9ati exti?unt vndecimo die Junij
Anno regni nri vicefimo ?tio de gra nra spali & ob fmgularem
aifectoem quam ad dilcos nobis maiorem & Coitatem ville pdce
geflimus & Huius concefferimus p nobis & heredib} firis qd tarn
quiit Burgenfis ville jldce qui extunc in Maiorem ville illius foret
elegindf & Maior exiftet eo ipo & quamcitius in Maiorem ville
illius sit eicus & pfecus fuit qumqum extunc [nunc] Maior ville
[Folio io8a.] jJdce foret extunc Efcaetor fir & hered & fucceffo^ firo£ in villa
^dca & fuburbiis & campis eiufdem ville durante tempore quo
aliquis huiufmodi Burgenfis in officio Maioratus ville ^dce ftaret
Et qd idem Efcaetor & succeffores fui eafdem nerent poteftatem
iurfdictoem auctoritatem & li"btatem ac quecuq} alia ad officiu
Efcaetoris ptinentia in eifdem villa fuburbis & campis que ce?i
Efcaetores nri ac heredum nro£ alibi infra regnu Anglie feerent
& feebunt Et qd nullo tempore extunc futur aliquis alius Efcaetor
fe de Aliquo officiu Efcaetoris tangente infra villam fuburbia &
campos $dic? aliquali? exercendf introm?et nifi tantum maior
ville jpdce p tempore exiftens Et qd dcus maior facramentum fuu
de officiu Efcaetoris nri ville $dce bene & fideli? faciend
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 369
coram aliqua notabili & fufficiante pfona jkextu mandati nri eidem
pibne fub magno figillo nro dirigendi et qd quilt maior ville jpdce
ex tune impoft9um eligendus tempore quo ipe facramentum suu
jpftaret coram Baronib) de Sccio nro & hered firo£ de officio maior-
atus ville jpdce bene & fideli? faciend facramentum fuu j}ftet coram
eiufdem Baronib} de officio Efcaetoris ville fldce bene & fideli?
faciend & nobis & heredib} nris de exitib} & reuentdib} de dco
officio Efcaetoris puenientib} ad Seem firm & hered nro£ refpon-
deat Et qd idem Maior & fucceffores fui tempore quo facra-
mentu fuu coram Jfatis Baron ib} pftarent licite coram eifdem
Baronib} fac9e poffent attorna? ad faciendf pfra fua & ad com-
putandf p eis in Sccio nro & hered nro£ de exitib} eiufdem
Efcaetrie annuatim put carta nra inde confecta plenius continetr
Jamq3 ex parte dco£ homi nobis eft datum intelligi qd carta nra
ac omia & fingula in eadem contenta vigore ac virtute cuiufdam
actus in parliamento nro apud Weftfn Anno regni nri vicelimo
octauo inchoato & apud Leyceftr finite ac cuiufdam alrius actus
in vltimo parliamento nro apud Weftm fimili? tento vacua &
nullius effectus eifdem hoib} exiftunt vt dicitr in ipo^ homi ac
ville fire jldce dampnu non modicum & grauamen Vnde not)
humili? fupplicarunt vt fibi alias iras firas patentes Sibi in hac [Folio Io8b<]
pte grofe concedere dignaremr Nos eo^ fupplicatoi in hac parte
fauorabili? inclinati de gra nra fpali & ob fingularem aifectoem Nota
quam ad dilec? no'b maiorem & Cditatem ville illius gerimus &
nemus conceffimus iam de nouo p nobis & heredib3 firis qd tarn
quiit Burgefis ville pdce qui impoft9um in maiorem ville illius
fuit eligendus & maior exiftet eo ipo & qmcitius in maiorem ville
illius lie eicus & jlfectus fuit qam nunc maior ville jpdce fit ex-
tune Efcaetor fir hered & fucceffo^ nro^ in villa j}clca fuburbiis
& campis eiufdem ville durante tempore quo aliquis huiufmodi
Burgenfis in officio Maioratus ville jldce fte?it Et qd idem Efcae-
tor & fucceffores fui eafdem neant poteftatem iurefdictoem auc-
toritatem et li^tatem ac quecumq} alia ad officiu Efcaetoris
ptinentia in eifdem villa fuburbiis & campis que ce?i Efcaetores
nri ac heredum nro^ alibi infra regnu Anglie nent & nebunt Et
qd nullo tempore futur aliquis alius Efcaetor se de aliquo officiu
Efcaetoris tangente infra villam fuburbia & campos pdct aliquali?
exc9cendf intromittat nifi tan Maior ville $dce p tempore exiftens
Et qd dcus nunc maior facrm suu de officio Efcaetoris nri ville
pdce bene & fideli? faciendf $ftet coram aliqua fufficient & no-
AA
37° NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
tabili pfona ptextu mandati nri eidem pfone fub magno sigillo nro
dirigend Et qd quilt Maior ville jpdce impofr^um eligendus tern-
pore quo ipe facrm suu jpftabit coram Baronib} de Sccio nro &
heredum nro£ de officio maioratus ville $dce bene & fideli? faciend
facrm suu jpilet coram eifdem Baronib} de officio Efcaetoris ville
jpdco bene & fideli? faciend & nobis et heredib} riris Jldcis de
exitib3 reuentoib} de dco officio Efcaetoris puenientib3 ad Seem
firm & heredum nro£ annuatim refpondeat Et qd idem maior
fucceffores sui tempore quo facrm fuu coram gratis Baronib}
flftabunt licite coram eifdem Baronib3 fac9e poflmt attorna? ad
faciendf profra fua & ad computandf p eis in Sccio nro &
[Folio ioga.] heredum nro£ de exitib3 eiufdem Efcaetrie annuatim Jn cuius rei
teftimoniu has iras nras ffieri fecimus patentes Tefte me ipo apud
Weftm duodecimo die Martij anno regni nri tricefimo JNSPEXI-
MUS infup cartam j!dci H sexti nup vt jlmittitr Regis fcm in hec
v9ba Henricus dei gra Rex Angt & ffrancie & Dominus Hit>nie
Archiepis Epis A'bb^ Priorib3 Ducib3 Comitib5 Baronib3 Juftic
Corporat Vicecomitib3 Prepofitis Miniftris & omib3 balliuis & fidelib3 fuis
saltm Sciatis qd nos non folum magna & notabilia obfequia que
fideles hoies & burgenfes ville fire Norhamptofi nobis ante hec
tempora verumetiam magna & notabilia obfequia que iam tarde
ipi p diuturnam attendentiam & affiftentiam pfone fire regie ad
fua gavia cuftus expenfas & on9a impenderunt confiderantes qam-
obrem ipi & p folutoem feodi firme ville p9dce multiplicit gauatia
& on9ati exiftunt vt accepimus Cumq3 etiam maior & balliui in
villa p9dca continue a tempore quo non extat memoria extiterunt
qui diufas lifctates franchefias quietancias immunitates ex concef-
fionib3 inclito^ pgenito^ nro^ quondam regum Anglie & firi p
fana & condecente gufcnatioe eiufdem ville huerunt & optinuerunt
Volentes igitr & ob fingularem affectoem quam ad dilcos not>
Wiftm Auflyn Armig^^um nunc maiorem ville p9dce & burgenfes
et Coitatem eiufdem ville gerimus & nemus munificentiam firam
regiam eifdem Burgenfib3 in hac pte grofius exhibere de gra
nra spali & exmero motu & c9ta scientia firis conceflimus & hac
p9fenti carta nra confirmauimus p nofo hered & succeflbrib3 nris
Burgenfib3 ville p9dce & fuccefforib3 fuis imppm lit>tates franchefias
quietancias & immunitates fubfcrip? Videit qd villa ilia de vno
maiore duob3 Balliuis & Burgenlib3 lit imppm corporata et qd
ijdem maior balliui & burgenfes ville illius fie corporate sint vna
coitas ppetua corporata in re & none p nomen maioris balliuor &
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 37!
burgenfium ville illius Reantq3 succelfionem ppetuam Et qd ijdem
maior balliui & burgenfes & fucceffores fui $dci p idem nomen
fmt pibne habiles in lege ad omimod plita fectas querelas & de- bSg0ernf&
mandas necnon actoes reales plbnales & mixtas mota seu mouenda Corpon
in quibufcumq} Cur nris vel hered nro£ aut alio£ quo^cumqs tarn [Folio I09b']
coram nobis & hered nris qm coram quibufcumq} Justic & vocat
Judicib} spualib} & secularib3 pfequend & defendenda et qd ipi in
eifdem phtare poffint & implacitare et refpondere & refponderi
Conceilimus etiam p nobis & hered nris fldcis pfatis nunc maiori
& burgenfib} & fucceiforib} fuis qd quandocumq} aliquis maior
dee ville p tempore exiftens infra tempus officij maioratus sui
aliquo modo obire seu caufa infirmitatis vel aliquo alio cafu
Cetfare seu vacare contig9it lie qd dcm officiu debite exequi non
po?it tune dci burgenfes ville Jdce heredes & Iucceffores fui pie- burgenfes
nam poteftatem iurifdictoem auctoritatem & libtatem ad hufteng
dee ville px tenend poft obitum cellatoem seu vacatoem huiuf-
modi maioris neant ad eligend in? se vnu aliu de comburgenlib}
dee ville in maiorem dee ville Qui quidem Maior sic eicus seu
eligenclus sacfm suu de offic maioratus & Efcaetoris eiufdem ville
coram Baronib} de Sccio nro & hered firo^ ^ftet ad officia ilia
bene & fideliter faciend obferuand cuftodiend & exequend ac
not) & hered nris de exitib} & reuentdib} de dco officio Efcaetoris
puenien? ad Seem firm & hered nro£ annuatim refpondend put
antea annuatim fieri confueuit totiens quociens cafus jlclcus euenire
contig9it Et vl?ius de habundanti gra nra conceffimus p nobis Cnftod pads
hered & fuccefforib} nris pfatis nunc maiori & burgeniib} ville
p9dce & fuccefforib} fuis qd tarn idem nunc Maior qam quiit bur-
geniis ville p9dce qui impolr^um in maiorem ville illius fuit
eligendus & maior exiftet eo ipo & qamcitius in Maiorem eiufdem
ville sit eicus & p9fectus extunc sit Juftic fiue Cuftos pacis fire
hered siue fucceiTo^ firo^ infra villam p9dcam suburb & campos
eiufdem ville put se extendunt conferuand durante tempore quo
aliquis huiufmodi burgenfis in officio maioratus ville p9dce extitit
ac dantes & concedentes eifdem maiori burgenfib3 & fuccefforib}
fuis qui maiorem eiufdem ville impoft9um fuit eligend plenam
tenore p9fentiu auctoritatem poteftatem ad ofnia & fingula faciend [Folio nca-]
ex9cend & exequend que ad Juftic siue Cuftodem pacis fire infra
villam pMcam suburb & campos eiufdem ville put se extendunt
debite imppfn ptinent faciend Et qd nullum Warantatum de sup-
fedendo pfecuritate pacis fub teftimonio alicuius Juftic nro^ hered
AA 2
372 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
& succeffo^ riro£ de pace in Com Norht conferuand alfigna? seu
atfignand infra lifttatem dee ville dece?o allocet1 nifi n5ia manu-
capto^ & summam in quib} nobis dci manucap? coram huiufmodi
Juftic tenentr p recognitoem suam in hac ;pte plenarie exp9ifant
& declarantr vt dcus maior & fucceifores fui qui cuftodiam pacis
ibidem tarn ex conceflione nra qam pgenito^ nro£ Rent debite
nobis in quibufcumq} Cur nris de huiufmodi securitate c9tificate
poffmt Acetiam de vfoiori gra nra conceifimus p nobis hered & fuc-
celforib} nris pfatis nunc Maiori balliuis & burgenfib} & fuccefibrib3
fuis qd nee ijdem Maior balliui & burgenfes neceo^ aliquis infra
dc? villam & fuburb eiufdem comorantes & reiidentes fiant seu
fiat deceto taxatores affeifores fme Collectores feu taxator AifeiTor
flue collector alicuius taxe quote seu fubfidij aut quindecime &
decime siue altius taxe impofitois seu tallagij cuiufcumq3 nobis
hered feu fuccefforib3 nris p Coitatem regni nri Anglie concedend
de seu in Com in Nornt p9dce nee alibi p9? qam in p9dca villa
Northampton suburb & campis eiufdem put se extendunt tm set qd
ipi & eo£ quiit inde totali? sint quieti & exon9ati imppin Hiis
teftib3 ven9abilis prib3 TR Cantuar & W Ebo^ Archiepis W Wynton
Cancellario nro & L Dunolm Cuftode priuati sigilli nri Epis ac
cariflimis Confanguineis nris Henr Exofi & Humfro Bukyngn
ducib3 Jone Salop & Jacobo Wiltes Thes nro Comitib3 Jone de
Beaumont & Henr Bourghchier vicecomitib3 necnon diltis & fidelib5
nris Jone de Beauchamp Senescallo hofpitij nri & Rico Turnftall
Camario nro militib3 & aliis Dat p manu nram apud Weftm quar-
todecimo die Marcij Anno regni nri tricefimo octauo Nos autem
[Folio nob] cartas & ^ras p9dcas ac omia & fingula contenta in eifdem rata
Rentes & grata ea p nobis & heredib3 nris quantum in nobis
acceptamus & approbamus ac dilcis nobis nunc Maiori Balliuis &
burgenfib3 ville p9dce & fuccefforib3 fuis ratificamus & confirma-
mus put carte & ire p9dce ronabili? teftant1 Jn cuius rei teftimoniu
has iras nras fieri fecimus patentes Tefte me ipo apud Weftfn
decimo die Julij Anno regni nri Scdo Pro quinq3 marcis solu?
in hanapio
Swerendofi
„ ( JoRem Chamberleyn •)
Exa per ] J > Ciicos
(. et Ro^tum \\ alfham )
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 373
THE OTHE FFOR THE MEIRE AND CLERKE OF THE
MERKET & CHARGE
ffirft ye fhull treuly & dewly with all your diligence enquere
not fparyng ffor kynred ne for affynyte of any pfone but that ye
fhall certyfye and prefent vs clerke of the market ffor the kyng
of all maner thynges that ye mall be charged to enquere of
longyng to oure office & kepyng of the kynges councell your
ffelawes & your owne so help you god and holy dome and be
this boke
Ye mull enquere if the pylory & the tombrell be ftrong or well n i
repaired or not yf any man or woman be demed thertto that he
or fhe mail nether lefe lyffe ne lymme but go vp fafe & come
down fafe with owte Any pifchyng of body
BAKERS
Allib of all maner of bakers that bake to the fale that they fi 2
bake good brede and of good bultell iiij lofys for id And ij lovis [Folio III
for a jd and no peny brede but if hit be Ipokyn for howfolde
BREWERS
Allfo of all Brewers that thei brewe Good Ale and holfome ^
for mannys body And that they sell be mefur enfealed . And yf
thei fell be any Cuppe choppet or thyrndall p9fent them to vs.
ffor the statute of the grete chartor the xv chapitur vna mefur
vini & f^uicie & vnam pondus &c One weight and one mefure
thorough owte the realme of Englond
BUSCHELL
Allfo that no man fell be vnfealed bufchell or mefur And ^ 4
bye be a grete bufchell and fell be a letfe do vs to wete &c
BOCHERS
Allfo if that any fflefchewers that be called bochers fell any fi 5
on feafond flefcue that is lefte in gobbetf or in pecis the thorfday
and fell it on the fonday or kyll any mefell hogges or any fowe
that is late brymmyd or kowe fflefch that is enveled or ewe that
is w* lambe for theife be pilous to mannys body And that thei
take non exces more than vppon . xijd . a jd wynnyng And of all
exces takyn do vs witte ffor it is agayne the comyn lawe
374 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
TANNERS
~ a Allfo of all man9 of Tanners that be wonte to fell rawe ledder
n O
not well tannyd ffor it ihulde be a yere and a day in the same
fface And yf he doo the contrary he fhulde lefe vjs viijd And all
Tanners that worcheth ranced leddur ffor it is contrary to the
lawe And the cordyner lhall for euy payre fhouis so evell tanned
or Botis iliall lefe .vjs viijd. ffor it is the ftatute Anno ij° Henr vj"
311(And that no Cordyner take no man9 exces for A payr mannys
fhous but vjd A woman A payre fhoue for iiijd This statute was
made in Edwardf dayes the thyrde) And that he fell no fhoue of
[Folio nib.] faice leddur And that he do no difceite in kuttyng of leddar that
coryed in waltes of fchone &c
FFYSSHERS
~ Alfo of all ffiffhers that fell ffyffhe that it be not putred ffyffh
ne corupt ffyfme And aftir that it is be watred & not be falted
Ageyn And that he take non exces in fellyng ther off
JNNEHOLDERS
g Allfo that no man9 Jnneholders bake no horfebrede w*in his
O&ry ne no where ellis for it is forbeden bi the ftatute in kyng
Rychard^ tyme Anno xiij° And in kyng H the iiijth is tyme ne
no whete brede ne brewe non ale And that he take for a bufchell
ootes but ofo ower the prife that it is in the market for it is
ordeyned be the ftatutf of Cavmbrigge And be ftatutf above feid
And p9fent hem to vs
SPICERS
Alfo of man9 spicers that fell spicery that they fell be no cor-
nettf ne be no homes but be weight Enfealed w* the kyngf seall
Ne safferon be peny nor be geife of the hande nor exces
DRAPERS
Alfn nf all marr rlranprs
IO
Alfo of all man9 drapers Mercers And that thei fell be }arde
and Ell fealed with the kynge feall and if thei do the contrary
311 The paragraph " And that no cordyner take no manner exces for a payr
"mannys shous but vjd A woman a payr shoue for iiijd This statute was made
"in Edwards dayes the thyrde" has been struck out in the Liber by a later hand.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 375
p9fent hem to vs how many 3ardis or ellunys that thei have
folde for it is agoode ffoffet
TAILLOURS
Alfo if any Taillour that hath Any }arde vnfealed not Ir
According to the draps }arde for it is fclaunder to fe draps
FFERROURS [Folio "2a-]
Alfo that all man9 of fferrours fell horfe fchon of viij naile for a
jd And that he take for jii of rough yron fettyng on qa
TAVERNERS
Alfo of all man9 Tauners that fell any Corupte wyne that 12
is nott holfome for mannys body and that he fell be mefure
enfealed and ellis p9fent how many tonnes pypes hoggefhedes
that he hath J foulde on fuch wyfe ffor the kyng ought hafe the
volour fo j folde the tauner to prefon And the TaSne dore to be
fhete Jnne vnto the tyme that he hafe pdon of the kyng or ellis
of the kyngf ftywarde of howfolde
COKES
Allfo if any Coke rechafe fflefih or rfyflh bake or fodyn that
was onys colde and that he non exces take in the fellyng
COUPERS
Alfo if any Couper make any mefures but they be accordyng
to the kyngc ftandard As he may Afered be fore the Clerke of J?e
m9kett
MILLERS
Alfo yf any millner take exces toll other wife than be the l^
Tolle dyflh enfealed ffor he fhulde take the tolle be rafor and not
be combell nor be Cantell
WEYZTIS OF AUNCELL
Alfo yf any man waye be auncell ffor it is forboden be the
ftatutf and he is a Curfed be the Chirche in Cafe that he occupy
them weying inwarde or owtewarde
376 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
OTHER WEYGHTIS
1 6 Alfo yf any man bye or fell woll wax flax or any man9 of
Au9depeyfe be bones or ftones the which may not be fealed
Accordyng to the kyngf weyghtes for fuche weyghtes difceyveth
the kyngf people both in byyng & in fellyng &c
FFORSTALLERS
17 Alfo of all man9 of fforftallers comyn to town or to market
[Folio H2b.] And lyen in a wayte with oute the town or market and byeth
eyther Corne Catell pullett wylde foule rryffh fflefih or any other
man9 thyng And thus be that means of his grete difceyte and
encrefe in poryng & hurtyng of the pore people . And thus
defceyte the riche men and makyng hem to bye the darrer
JJfent hem vs
REGRATOURS
18 Alfo of another man9 of forftaller and regratour that fforftalls
and regrates the markettf in Townes & mkettes wher that thei
gone Aboute not withftandyng ther is in the Town & markettf
dewe ovre and tyme be the ordynaunce made and sett .That no
man fhall open his m9chandyfe ne bye ne fell till that owre come
And to that entente that all men fhulde by after the fyrft hande
so than comyth thifs fforftallers and regratoris to the m9ket be fore
the ovre and tyme fett . Prevely goyng abowte chepyng and bying
be his offre eSy thyng that hym femeth good for to doo corne
catell ffifm fflefih pullett wylde foule and all other thynge And
thus he chepith and byeth all thyngf And fo kepith in his
honde That where the kyngf people fchulde bye at the rfyrft
hande of them that owith hit . ffyrfl fo than the pore man mufte
by of them at the fecounde honde and the thride honde thoo that
he knowe p9fent them to vs
THAT MAKE THE MARKET IN THER HOWSES
Alfo of all tho men that vfe to make ther m9kett in her
howfes and call into her houfe the people that comyth and wolde
come to the market and ther byeth all man9 of vitaile and mar-
chandife and fo ye Ihull vnderftonde he is A forftaller and re-
[Foiio u3a.] gratour of the market 312t (in makyng of the people pore) yf ye
knowe eny such prefent them to vs &c.
312 The paragraph "in makyng of the people pore," has been struck out in
the Liber by a later hand.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 377
Alfo ye Ihull equere of all man9 men that vfen to fende
ther men and fuch as bene or woll bene of their alfent to the
town or too the markett with ther owne marchandife . Or vitaile
that is come Catell pullett wildefoule ffitfh ffleffh milke Chefe
Buttur or any other thyng . Anon aftir hym iilfe comyng in to the
town or m9ket chepyng and proferying for this marchaundife
or vitaile as it were not his And thus he be the sotelte and
difceite of hym thus lovyng or bedyng for his owne marchaun-
dife or vitaile fhulde make the price of all the markett Aryfe
be a oft or a jdj. And thus he forftallith and regrateth the mer-
ket Enporeth the kyngf liege people and fcornyng and mokkyng
the riche people the contrary to the lawe and ftatutf made in
kyng Herryes tyme the iijd. Alfo in kyng Edward tyme the iijd
and fo &c Alfo if any pfone bye or fell any man9 of corne other
wyfe than by Buflhell rafid with owte hepe or Cautell
S13 Alfo of iij prices of whete the ffirft the secounde and the
thirde takyng iij market dayes Afore this day And the belt for
the kyng . Alfo of Barly pelyn benys & Otis and heye for our
fouayn lordys horfe As for his sadill be one daye & one nyght . A
galon A galoun of the beft ale. A galon of the beft wyne of Gafkoyn
313 Alfo ye ftiall enquere of the Stiward or of the Bayllyf} of
the town yf thei take Any ffynes or mede for ther luker or
linguler Awayle in brekyng of the lawe made & fette in kyng
Herry the iijd in his reigne liij yer be the which mede and
Ayayle taken thus wyfe that where the baker or the Bruer
brekyng the Affife of brede and Ale Ihulde hafe Jugement the
baker to the pylary And the bruer to the Tombrell with owte
any redempcion or ffyne makyng
314 Alfo if that Any Meir or Bayly of Cite Borough or town
sell any maner vitaill at retayl during the tyme of his office .
That is to fey brede ffleffh ffyffh wyne or ale
314 Alfo yf that Any man bye or fell viij bofchellis rafed and
no more for the quarter
313 The last two paragraphs commencing " Also of iij prices," and " Also ye
" shall " have been crossed out in the Liber by a later hand.
314 The two paragraphs commencing " Also if that any Meir " and " Also yf
"that any man" have been struck through by a later hand.
378 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Alfo of all man9 of Talow Chaundelers that fellen Talow Candell
Salte Otemele Sope and other diuerfe chaffer that his weightis
be fifed and fealed and trewe Berne And that they putt no fflo-
teys Among ther talowe ne threde Among Coton in difceite of
people if ye knows any fuch p9fent hem to vs by name
Alfo of all tho that occupy ffyflhyng in the comyn waters with
Any vnlawfull nettis or Gynnes yfe ye knowe Any p^fent hem
to vs And tho that ffiffli in the Ryver and fferme it not thei
ovght to make ffyne} to the Chaumber of the toun p9fent hem
to vs &c
Alfo of all the Bakers that hafe fynes At ther dorres ffor hit
is contrary to the ftatutes p9fent them to vs &c
Alfo of all bakers that occupy Any milles for hit is contrary to
the ftatute3 p9fent them to vs &c
315Jtem ot all thofe victailers that have Jnnes & Signes at their
dores
[Folio H4a.] • • -316be Affignen to the And thi Maifters And the comyn pfyte
don . . . And thou Ihalte do no man9 wrong to thy power so helpe
the god and all seyntis &c
COPIA DE LIBTATIBZ COPY OF THE LIBERTIES OF
NORHAMPTON NORTHAMPTON
UniSfis Xpi fidelib} ad quos To all the faithful of Christ
p9fentes ire pue3int Henricus to whom the present letters shall
Humffrey Maior ville Norhamp- come Henry Humffrey317 mayor
ton et of the town of Northampton and
315 The paragraph commencing " Jtem of all those" has been written by a
later hand.
316 This paragraph has been struck through by a later hand. One folio has
been cut out of the Liber at this place.
317 Henry Humffrey was mayor of the town in 1487-8, 1492-3, 1499-1500, and
1508-9.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
379
omes dct ville Comburgenfes .
Saltm in diio fempi?nam Sciatis
qd Ricus Baxfter lator p^fentiu
nofter Comburgenfis p^dilcus ex-
iftit et vti ac gaudere debet
Irbtatib} fannchefijs ac lit>is con-
fuetudinib} nobis p dum Jofiem
quondam Regem Anglie conceff
Anno regni fui primo ac p dum
Henricu nunc Regem Anglie &
pgenitores fuos nobis conceff
confirmat & allocat Que quidm
lifctates funchelie quietancie &
lit>e confuetudines quas fiuerunt
Ciues London quando meliores
& lifciores eas ftuerunt nobis &
pdecefforib} firis p dcm dum
Jofrem quondam Regem Anglie
Necnon p dcm dum Regem nunc
& pgenitores fuos confirmata &
Ratificat exiftunt.Jn? quas con-
tinet: qd omnes Burgenies ville
Norhamptofi lint quieti a Theo-
lonio laftagio & Muragio p totam
Angliam & portus maris Et si
quis Theoloniu vel confuetudine
ab h5ib} Norhamptofi cepit pre-
politus Norftt Namium apd Norfit
capiat . Et vl?ius voluit dus Hen-
ricus quondam Rex Anglie poft
coqm tertius & p cartam fuam
firmi? p^cepit p se & hered fuis
qd p9dci Burgenies & eo^ hered
imppm Reant 1 States p9cas &
phibuit iniup
all the burgesses of the said
town send Greeting everlasting
in the Lord Know that Richard
Baxster bearer of these presents
is our dear fellow-burgess and
ought to use and enjoy the lib-
erties franchises and free customs
granted to us by the Lord John
formerly King of England in the
first year of his reign and by the
Lord Henry now king of Eng-
land and his progenitors granted
confirmed and allowed Which
liberties franchises quittances
and free customs which the citi-
zens of London had when they
had them better and more freely
are to us and our predecessors
by the said Lord John formerly
King of England and also by the
said Lord now King and his
progenitors confirmed and rati-
fied Amongst which it is con-
tained that all the burgesses of
the town of Northampton shall
be quit of toll lastage and wall-
tax through the whole of England
and the seaports and if any one
shall have taken toll or custom
from the men of Northampton the
reeve of Northampton may take
distress at Northampton And
further the Lord Henry formerly
King of England the third after
the Conquest wished and by his
charter firmly charged for him-
self and his heirs that the afore-
said burgesses and their heirs
shall for ever have the liberties
aforesaid and prohibited besides
38o
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
sup foriffcura lua ne quis eos
conta conceffionem fuam p9dcam
in aliquo dillrubet vel moleftet
Et in fup p maiore lecuritate
[Folio 1Mb.] libtatum rPunchefia^ quietancia^
& lit>a£ coniuetudines p9dca^ .
Carte & lifcta? p9dce de huiuf-
modi conceffionib} Irbtatib} ffaun-
chefijs quietancijs & Irbis con-
fuetudinib) de Alfenlu dno£
fjpualm & tempalium in plia-
mento dci dni Henrici Regis
nunc apd Weftm anno Regni
fui prime tent exiftent accept &
approbat & nunc burgenfib} ville
p9dict ratificat & confirmat ex-
iftunt Quare vobis supplicamus
quartim8 p9dcum RiciTi Baxfter
cum ad ptes vras puen9it cum
mercandifis fuis emend vel ven-
dend Irbtatib} ffaunchefijs quie-
tancijs & Irbis confuetudinib} nris
fauorabili? vti & gaudere pmit-
tatf non ei neq3 fuis inferentes
vel in ferri pmittentes Jniuriam
moleflam seu grauamen Jn cuius
rei teftimoniu Sigillum officij
maioratus ville Norhampton
p9fentib3 eft appenfum Dat
Norhampton vicefimo die Menf
Januarij Anno regni Regis Hen-
rici Septimi poft conqiTi secundo
under a forfeit any one from
disturbing or molesting them in
anything contrary to his con-
cession aforesaid And besides
for the greater security of the
liberties franchises quittances
and free customs aforesaid the
charters and liberties aforesaid
of such concessions liberties
franchises quittances and free
customs with the assent of the
lords spiritual and temporal
in the parliament of the said
Lord Henry now King held at
Westminster in the first year of
his reign were accepted and
approved and are now to the
burgesses of the town aforesaid
satisfied and confirmed Where-
fore we beseech you to permit
the aforesaid Richard Baxster
when he shall come to your parts
with his merchandise to buy or
sell favourably to use and enjoy
our liberties franchises quittances
and free customs not putting or
permitting to be put on him or
his men any injury harm or
grievance In testimony whereof
the seal of the office of mayor of
the town of Northampton is
appended to these presents
Given at Northampton on the
2oth day of the month of January
[1487] in the second year of the
reign of King Henry the Seventh
after the Conquest 318
318 This document is of the nature of a passport, for burgesses of this town
travelling in other towns.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
Edwardus dei gra Rex An-
glie & ffrancie & dominus Hil5-
nie Baftis Burgenfib} & toti
coitati ville Noftre Norfct Saltm
Sciatis qd Norftt Comburgenfis
ver quern vos in maiorem vrm
ville p9dce p Anno future vn-
animi? eligiftis sicut p iras vras
patentes Thes Baronib} de Sccio
nro inde directas significaftis ad
idm Seem eft admin" Et p9ftitit
sacrm it»m de bene & fidelit se
feendo in officio p9dco put mors
eft et ideo vobis mandamus qd
idem Wiftmo tanqam maiori &
Cuftodi ville p^dce in hijs que
ad maioratum & Cuftodiam illos
ptinent intendentes sitis & ref-
pondentes in forma p^dca Jn
cuius rei teftimoniu has Iras nras
fieri fecimus patentes Tefte Rico
Illyngworth milite Apud WeftiTi
nono da? &c
Edward by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to the bailiffs
burgesses and whole commonalty
of our town of Northampton
Greeting Know that your fellow-
burgess of Northampton whom
you have unanimously elected to
be your mayor of the town afore-
said for the coming year as by
your letters patent directed to
the barons of the treasury of
our Exchequer you have signified
has been admitted at the same
Exchequer and has taken the
oath there concerning his good
and faithful behaviour in the
office aforesaid as the practice is
And therefore we command you
to be obedient and responsive to
the same William as being
mayor and keeper of the town
aforesaid in these things which
appertain to those offices of
mayor and keeper in the form
aforesaid In testimony whereof
we have caused these our letters
to be made patent Witness
Richard Illyngworth Knight at
Westminster given on the gth
&C319
[Folio
319 This form of certificate was given in conformity with the charter of ayth
Edward I., hereinbefore printed on page 56.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
SCIRE FFAC SUP RECOG-
NICiONEM AN0 ig° H 6U
RICARDUS Wemmes Maior
ville Norftt N . & J A eiufdm
ville bafti . N . sufcfi fuo Saltm
Cum . N . de N xv° die Menf &c
Anno rr &c in Guyhalde ville
jldct in pp'a pfona fua coram . N.
ad tune maiore eiufdm ville re-
cognon & fatebatr fe teneri W.
R Jun9 in decem lib? fterlingo^
bone & legal monete soluend
eidm Wiftmo &c inde peu? px
extunc futur poft dat p9fen?
her & exen? fuis aut fuo c9to
Attorn sub hac conditioe qd ii
ffa? Edmundus &c foluat pfat.
W. ut pat} &c put in recordo
inde confectus plenius liquet
Precipimus tibi qd scir facias
diet . E p iiijor pbos & legai hoies
ville p9dce qd sit coram nobis
in Guyhalde ville p9dce ad huf-
teng ita tenend . tli die &c ad
oftendend si quid Reat vel dic9e
fciat quar p9dcus . W. R . execu-
t5em dca^ decem libra^ p9dicta^
virtute
SCIRE FACIAS UPON
RECOGNIZANCE IN THE IQTH
YEAR OF HENRY 6TH
Richard Wemmes 32° mayor
of the town of Northampton N
and J A bailiffs of the same town
to N their under-bailiff Greeting
Whereas N of N on the i5th day
of the month &c in the year of the
reign of King &c in the Guildhall
of the town aforesaid in his own
proper person before N then
mayor of the same town (made)
recognizance and confessed that
he was bound to W R Junr in ten
pounds sterling of good and
lawful money to be paid to the
same William &c thence then
next coming after the date of
these presents to his heirs and
executors or to his sure attorney
under this condition that if the
aforesaid Edmund &c should pay
to the aforesaid William as it
appears &c as is more fully
clear in the record made in the
matterWe charge you that you in-
struct the said E by four approved
and liege men of the town afore-
said that he be present before us
in the Guildhall of the town
aforesaid at the Court of Hust-
ings there to be held on such a
day &c to show if he have any
reason or can say anything why
the aforesaid W R ought not to
have execution of the said ten
pounds aforesaid by virtue of the
320 Richard Wemmes, or Wemys, was mayor of the town in 1421-2.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
383
recogfionis p9dce v9f9 Eund N .
de N . ner non debeat Et fieas
ibi tune noia eo^ p quos ei fcire
fec9is & hoc p9cep? Et hoc nullo
modo omittatf Da? in hufteng
ita ten? die lune &c Anno &c
Et oport} omnio qd neat
diem A quindena in quindena
& non infra &c
recognizance aforesaid against
the said N of N And that you
have there and then the names of
those men by whom you in-
structed him And this charge
you must in no manner neglect
Given at the Court of Hustings
there held on Monday &c in the
year &c
And it is altogether right that
he have a day from quinzaine [a
period of 15 days] to quinzaine
and not less &c
Returnu Rofcti &c sutffi &c
Scir fee Virtute iftius p9cept . N
de N . infra n5iat p iiijor noiatos
&c pbos & legales homies de
villa . N . qd sit coram vobis ad
diem & locum in ifto p9cept con-
tent1 ad f & rec put iftud p9c
in se exigit & requirit &c
Return of
Robert &c under-bailiff &c
By virtue of that precept I
have instructed N of N with-
in named by four named &c &
approved and liege men of the
town of Northampton to appear
before you at the day and place
in that precept contained to make
answer and (recognizances) as
that precept demands and requires
[Folio
Ad quern diem dcus . N . fee
defalt &c 10 p confide? Cur pr
eft baftis &c
On which day the said N
made default &c Therefore by
consideration of the court afore-
said it is to the bailiffs &c
Et poftea idem . N . de N . ps
fait tria breuia de errore cor-
And afterwards the same N
of N aforesaid was three briefs
rigende &c & fup certifica? eft concerning the correction of his
p Cur totum record cum pceflu fault &c and further this certifi-
vna cu tertio bre & cu returno cate is by the whole court re-
corded with the process together
with the third brief and with
384
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
eiufdm fub sigillo officij Maiora-
tus ville Norht &c tempe . N .
Maioris & ff . N . baftio$ Anno rr
&c
FFORMA DE JRROTULATOIBZ
NORHAMPTON
Rotulus memorando^ ville
Norhampton imppm duratur de
tempe Henrici Humffrey maioris
Joni Wattes & Thome Beryng-
ton baftio^ A fefto sci MicRis
Arcfei Anno rr Henrici Septimi
poft conqm scdo vfq3 idm feftu
sci Micfeis p vnu Annu integrum
Wiftmo Soffyndale tune
Coi Qico
[Folio n6a.] FFIERI FFACIAS
Jofces Clerke maior ville Norht
Jofti Wylcokes & Henrico Col-
man baftis libtat ville p^dict9
Saltm ex pte dni Regis vobis &
alteri vrm mando qd fieri faciatis
seii alt9 vrm fieri faciat de bonis
& cataft Emudi Swan & Rofcti
Morwode de Nornt Goldefmyth
the return of the same under
the seal of the office of mayor of
the town of Northampton &c in
the time of N mayor and F N
bailiffs in the year of the reign
of King &c
FORM OF ENROLMENTS
NORTHAMPTON
The Roll of matters of the
town of Northampton to be re-
membered to remain for ever
from the time of Henry Humffrey
321 mayor John Wattes & Thomas
Beryngton bailiffs from the feast
of St Michael the Archangel in
the second year of the reign of
King Henry the Seventh [1486]
after the Conquest until the same
feast of St Michael for one whole
year
William Sossyndale then
Common Clerk
FIERI FACIAS
John Clerke 322 Mayor of the
town of Northampton to John
Wylcokes & Henry Colman
bailiffs of the liberty of the
town aforesaid Greeting On be-
half of our Lord the King to you
and either of you I command
that you cause to be made or
that one of you cause to be made
out of the goods and chattels of
Edmund Swan and Robert Mor-
wode of Northampton goldsmith
21 Henry Humffrey, or Humphrey, was mayor of the town in 1487-8, 1492-3,
1499-1500, and 1508-9.
22 John Clerke, or Clarke, was mayor of the town in 1470-1, and 1483-4.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
385
de xvijs xd & p dampnis xiijd
quos Wiftms Mufcote Gent re-
cupauit vf dcm Jofiem Edward
p xij &c in piito defci Ac de
ijs quos idm Wiiims Mufcote
recupauit p xij &c vis dcm JoRem
in plenis piitf coram nob pfati
maiore & baftis &c in piito tanfgr
Et cum sic leuaueritf $dict xvijs
xd vna cu xiijd p dampn in ptito
defci Ac duos solid jldictos p
dampn in piito tanigr vt fupra
die? eft sine dilatone deliberare
faciatf seu al? vrm deliftar faciat
fub piculo incumbent
Tefl9 me ipo Jofie Clerke
decimo nono die menf9 Julij
Anno dni nuc Regis decim
concerning 175 lod &for damages
i3d which William Muscote
Gent recovered against the said
John Edward by 12 &c in plea
to be due And concerning 2s
which the same William Muscote
recovered by 12 &c against the
said John in full pleas before us
the aforesaid mayor and bailiffs
&c in plea of trespass And when
you shall have so levied the
aforesaid iys lod together with
I3d for damages in plea to be
due and the two shillings afore-
said for damages in plea of
trespass as is said above without
delay you cause its delivery or
one of you cause its delivery
under peril incumbent
Witness myself John Clerke
the i gth day of the month of
July [1470] in the tenth year of
our Lord now King
FFIERI FFACIAS
Henricus Humffrey Maior ville
NorRt Jofci Wattes & Thome
Beryngton baftis ita Saltm vobis
& alt^i vrm mando qd fieri faciatis
seu vnus vrm fieri faciat de bonis
& Catallis Jofiis Adams Inn-
holder manucaptoris Wifti Mey
mercer de iiijor marcas xvjd in
quib} idm Wiiims condempnatr
in
FIERI FACIAS
Henry Humffrey 323 mayor of
the town of Northampton to John
Wattes & Thomas Beryngton
bailiffs there Greeting I com-
mand you and either one of you
that you cause to be made or one
of you cause to be made from
the goods and chattels of John
Adams Innholder the surety of
William Mey mercer concerning
four marks i6d in which the
same William is condemned in
323 Henry Humffrey, or Humphrey, was mayor of the town in 1487-8, 1492-33
1499-1500, and 1508-9.
B B
386
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Curia &c coram nobis p xij &c
v9f Hugonem Wodefall Bower de
Norftt in plito deti &c p dampna
. xijd &c fup Judiciu ijs Et cum
sic leuaueritis $dict9 iiijot marcas
xvjd vna cu dampnis fupadict
flfat Hugoni sine dilatone delifcar
faciatis seu vnus vrm delifoari
faciat sub piculo incumbente &c
Dat9
Court &c before us by 12 &c
against Hugh Wodefall bowyer
of Northampton in plea to be
due &c for damage i2d &c for
judgement 2s And when you
shall have so levied the aforesaid
four marks i6d together with the
damages aforesaid to the afore-
said Hugh without delay you
cause its delivery or one of you
cause its delivery under peril
incumbent &c Given
[Folio'.irfb.]
FFIERI FACIAS
HENRICUS HUMFFREY MAIOR
ville Norftt Jofci Wattes & Thome
Beryngton baftis ifcm . Saltm .
vobis & Alt9i vrm mando qd fieri
faciatf seu vnu8 vrm fieri faciat
de bonis & Catallis Rofcti Mofe
& Wifti Whitcok manucaptores
Jofcis Pamplion de Pamplion de
Patefhull in pfito defci de xvs
inquib} condempnat* in Curia &c
coram nobis p defalt9 v9f9 WiftBuc-
by de Norfct &c & p dampnis fup
Judiciu xd Et cum sic leuaueritf
p9dict9 xvs vna cum dampnis vt
p9dcm eft p9fat Wiftmo sine dila-
toe delifcar faciatis seu vnus vrm
delifoari faciat fub piclo incumbent
FIERI FACIAS
HENRY HUMFFREY 824 MAYOR
of the town of Northampton to
John Wattes & Thomas Beryng-
ton bailiffs there Greeting I
command you and either one of
you that you cause to be made
or one of you cause to be made
from the goods and chattels of
Robert Mose & William Whit-
cok the sureties of John Pamplion
of Pateshull in plea to be due
concerning 155 in which he is
condemned in Court &c before
us by default against William
Bucby of Northampton &c and
for damages upon judgement lod
And when you shall have so
levied the aforesaid 155 together
with the damages as is aforesaid
to the aforesaid William without
delay you cause its delivery or
one of you cause its delivery
under peril incumbent
324 Henry Humffrey, or Humphrey, was mayor of the town in 1487-8, 1492-3,
1499-1500, and 1508-9.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
387
Thomas Hunt Jones Clerk
Simon Braffeld & Wiftm Milly
Coronatores dni Regf infra lift-
tatem ville Norhampton Affinal?
Thome Mulib & Wiftmo Whitcok
Baftis it>m Saltm Ex pte dni
Reg£ vobis & alt?i vrm manda-
mus qd venir faciatf seu vnus
vrm venir faciat coram nobis die
ven9is px futur poft dat9 p9ientiu
extra portam Auftralem in le
Brigeftrete eiufd ville Ad horam
nouenam Ante meridiem eiufd
diei . xxiiijor pbos & legal hoies
villa p9dce qd tune sint it>m ad
faciend & exequed ea que ex
pte dni Regis ex officio nro tune
& ibm eis iniungent* Et qd vos
ipi tune fcitis it»m cu miniftris
vris & cum hoib} p9dcis fub picio
incumbent .Dat9 Apud Norhamp-
lon p9dcam vicefimo die men's
Julij Anno regni Regis Henrici
Septimi poft conqin quinto xiij
die Julij
Thomas Hunt John Clerk
Simon Braffeld & William Milly
coroners of our Lord the King
within the liberty of the town
of Northampton appointed to
Thomas Mulso & William Whit-
cok bailiffs there Greeting On
behalf of our Lord the King we
command you & each one of
you that you cause to come
or one of you cause to come
before us on Friday next coming
after the date of these presents
without the South Gate in the
Bridge Street of the same town
at the ninth hour before noon of
the same day 24 approved and
liege men of the town aforesaid
that they be there at that time
to do and perform those things
which on behalf of our Lord the
King from our office then and
there shall be enjoined upon
them And that you yourselves
be there at the same time with
your officers and with the men
aforesaid under peril incumbent
Given at Northampton aforesaid
on the 2oth day of the month of
July [1490] in the 5th year of the
reign of King Henry the yth
after the Conquest July I3th
B B 2
388
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Vif9 Corpis &c
n7a.] VENIRE FFACIAS "p INQUISITONE
OFFICIJ CLICI MERCATI
JoRes Clerk Maiorville Norftt
ac Qicus mercati in eadm villa
Jofei Wylcokes & Hen? Colman
batiis lifctat9 ifcm Saltm vobis &
alteri vrm mando qd venire
facial^1 feu vnus vrm venire
faciat coram me p^fat? maior &
ciico rn^cati in Guyhalde ville p9-
dict die Mercurij px ante feftm Sci
Thome Apli px futur xxiiij01' pro-
bos legal hoies ville ^dce qd
tune fint ifom ad faciend et exe-
quend ea que ad Officiu Ciici
m9cati jpdci in hac pte tune ifcm
eis iniungentr Et hoc nullo modo
omittatf seu vnus vrm non omit-
tat fub piclo incumbent Da? apd
Norhamptori xvij° die Decembr
Anno rr E iiij41 decimo
Baftis p noia noiata sic Ref-
pondent
View of Body &c
VENIRE FACIAS FOR
INQUISITION OF THE OFFICE OF
CLERK OF THE MARKET
John Clerk 325 mayor of the
town of Northampton and clerk
of the market in the same town
to John Wylcokes & Henry
Colman bailiffs of the liberty
there Greeting I command you
and either one of you that you
cause to come or one of you cause
to come before me the aforesaid
mayor and clerk of the market
in the Guildhall of the town
aforesaid on Wednesday next
before the feast of St Thomas
the Apostle [2ist December]
next coming 24 approved and
liege men of the town aforesaid
that they be then and there to do
and perform those things which
belonging to the office of clerk
of the market aforesaid in this
matter then and there shall be
enjoined upon them And this
in no manner must you neglect
or one of you must neglect
under peril incumbent Given at
Northampton the iyth day of De-
cember [1470] in the loth year of
the reign of King Edward the 4th
They thus answer to the
bailiffs by names as called
Executio iftius jpcepti pat} in The execution of this precept
quod paneft huic jpcepti Annex is made clear in the panel annexed
&c
to this precept &c
John Clerk, or Clarke, was mayor of the town in 1470-1, and 1483-4.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
389
Henricus Humffreymaior ville
Norhampton & Ciicus mercati
infra lit>tatem pdcam Thome
Beryngton & Jofei Wattes baftis
ifim Saltm ex pte dni Regis
vobis & alti vrm mando qd ve-
nire faciat coram me $fa.t maior
& Ciico mercati in Guyhalda
ville jldce die lime px futur
poft da? j]ientiu xxiiijor probos &
legal hoies eiuldm ville Qd tune
sint rbm ad faciend et exequend
ea que ad officm pdcum ex pte
dni Regis tune & ita eis iniun-
gentr Et hoc nullo modo omittatis
seu vnus vrm non omittat Et qd
vos ipi tune fcitis it>m sub piculo
incumbent Da? apd Norhampton
jldcam in ffefto Sci Laurencij fnris
Anno rr Henrici septimi poft
coriqm secundo
Henry Humffrey 326 mayor of
the town of Northampton and
clerk of the market within the
liberty aforesaid to Thomas
Beryngton & John Wattes bailiffs
there Greeting On behalf of our
Lord the King I command you
and each one of you that you
cause to come or one of you
cause to come before me the
aforesaid mayor and clerk of
the market in the Guildhall of
the town aforesaid on Monday
next coming after the date of
these presents 24 approved and
liege men of the same town that
they be then and there to do
and perform those things which
belonging to the office aforesaid
on behalf of our Lord the King
then and there shall be enjoined
upon them And this in no
manner must you neglect or one
of you must neglect And that
you yourselves be there at that
time under penalty incumbent
Given at Northampton aforesaid
on the feast of St Laurence
the Martyr [loth August 1487]
in the 2nd year of the reign of
King Henry the yth after the
Conquest
VENIR FFACIAS
Henricus Humffrey Maior ville
Norhampton Thome Beryngton
& Joni
VENIRE FACIAS
Henry Humffrey 326 mayor of
the town of Northampton to
Thomas Beryngton and John
[Folio ii7b.]
326 Henry Humffrey, or Humphrey, was mayor of the town in 1487-8, 1492-3,
1499-1500, and 1508-9.
390
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Wattes baftis rbm Saltm Ex pte
dni Regis vobis & al?i vrm
mando qd venire faciatis seu vnus
vrm venir faciat coram nobis in
Guyhald ville p9dicte die Ven9is
px futur poft da? p9ientm xxiiijor
pbos & legat h5ies ville p9dce
in quoiit quar?io eiufdm ville
pcipiend . Qd tune sint ifom ad
faciend et exequend ea que ex
pte dci dni Regis eis iniungentur
Et hoc nullo modo omittatis seu
vnus vrm non omittat Et qd vos
ipi tune fcitis rbm sub pena in
cum bent Da? apud Norhamptoii
p9dcam in fefto Sci Andree Appii
Anno rr Henrici septmi poft
conqm scdo &c
VENIR FFACIAS
A B & J A C Coronat9 dni
Regis &c R G & B A baftis ville
N . Saltm vobis mandamus ex pte
dni Regis qd venir faciatis coram
nobis xxiiijor pbos & legal h5ies
de N ad vidend corpus &c apud
N . p9dictam rbm interfect9vel de-
merfum &c Jta qd poffunt dicere
veredictu coram nobis quis vel
Wattes bailiffs there Greeting
On behalf of our Lord the King
I command you and each one of
you that you cause to come or
one of you cause to come before
us in the Guildhall of the town
aforesaid on Friday next coming
after the date of these presents
24 approved and liege men of the
town aforesaid in some quarter
of the same town to be decreed
That they be then and there to
do and perform those things
which on behalf of our said Lord
the King shall be enjoined upon
them And this in no manner
must you neglect or one of you
must neglect And that you
yourselves be there at the same
time under penalty incumbent
Given at Northampton aforesaid
on the feast of St Andrew the
Apostle [3oth November 1486]
in the 2nd year of the reign of
King Henry the jth after the
Conquest &c
VENIRE FACIAS
A B & J A C coroners of our
Lord the King &c to R G & B A
bailiffs of the town of North-
ampton Greeting We command
you on behalf of our Lord the
King that you cause to come
before us 24 approved & liege
men of Northampton to view the
body &c at Northampton aforesaid
there killed or drowned &c So
that they may be able to deliver
a verdict before us who was or
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 3QI
qui fuerunt caufa mortf diet &c who were the cause of the death
ad ronabilit9 diem fibi p9fixam Et of the said &c on a reasonable
hoc non omittatis seu vnus vrm day fixed for them And this you
non omittat sub piclo incumbent must not neglect or one of you
Dat9 decimo die mentis Nouembr must not neglect under peril
&c Anno regni Regis Henrici incumbent Given on the loth
septij poft conqueftu secundo &c day of the month of November
[1486] &c in the second year of
the reign of King Henry the jth
after the Conquest &c
Bi the affent of Phelipp E3ard William V9ifle Geffrey [Folio n8a.]
Herlefton coroners of the same towne Adam Cotefbroke William
Helys Thomas Staunford Water Patemall William Euerard Adam
ffy}t Adam Garlikmonger Henry Roger John Stratton Wai? Caye
Gylbert Baker and William Sotell to geder with the Commu After
of the forfeide Towne are aflented in the chirche of Seint Gyle
of Norhampto the Sonenday [5th October 1341] next afore the
feft of Seint Dionis in the yere of the regnne of kyng Edward
the thyrde aftir the conqueft fifteneth that e2y man that is born
in the forfeide town and his fadir hath ben at lot and Scotte and
in comune charge of the forfeide towne . Anon as he wille chaffren
come he by fore the maire and Coroners in pleyn plees of the
forfeide towne And make his othe in fuche man9e that he fhall
be ffeithfull and trewe to oure lorde the kynge and to his
Eyres And iuftifiable to maire and Bailliffes and the ffraunches and
the vfages of the forfeide towne to his power mayntene as mofte
pleynly to hym ihall be ihewed at the makyng of his othe and
that he paie the fees to the Clerke and Seriaunte of olde tyme
vied that is to wite . iiijd to the Clerke and .ijd to the s9geaunt
to the maire or to the town fro thenns forwarde And allfo that
if any of the condycion aforeide or any other chaffar or he haue
made his othe aforefeide . lefe his chaffar to the profite of the towne
Aforefeide . And allfo the forfaide maire and the Cominalte be
forefeide ben atfented that if any man of the fraunchife of the
forfaide towne Emplede other in the Courte of Norhampton be
defendaunt of the fraunchife or non in plee of dette of xijd or
laffe. He that is empledid may doo his lawe bi his owne honde .
So that he that (hall doo his lawe be of good fame . And alfo
the same vfage be holden in plee of difpfonament . So that the
392 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
pleyntyfe be of the fraunchife be the defendaunt duufayn or
forenne And allfo the forfaide mayre and Cominalte ben affented
that in the plees of dette or of trefpas that toucheth difpfona-
ment that the pleyntife after the lawe waged haue but on
albynes and in affermyng of theife poyntes a bove feide The
Comoun seall of the town of Norhampton is putte for to laften
at all dayes
SACRM RECORDATORIS
[THE OATH OF THE RECORDER.]
Ye fhall yeve good and true Councell to the Maire of Nor-
hampton and Bailliff} and ther mynyfters of the fame that now
ben and to ther Succeffours and the lybertees ffrauncheffis ffree
cuftomes and vfages of the fame Town . ye fhall maynteyn and
fufteyn . And be indyfferent be twene party and party in euery
-, mater and Caufe meved or to be meved within the Courte of
|_rolio 1193. J
the fame . Where thorow Ryght Jugement may procede to your
connyng and power So god you helpe and all Seyntys and be
this boke &c
SACRM CORNATOX DNI REGIS
[THE OATH OF THE CORONER OF OUR LORD THE KING.]
Ye fhall well and truely f9ue the kyng cure fouaigne lorde in
thoffice of Crouner within this toun and ffranchie} of the fame .
And truely kepe the pleefe of the Croune that to the kyng
longeth within this toun and ffraunchie} . And to fee that the people
of the toun ryghtvylly be entreted Os well the pore as the
Ryche . Os the Charter of kyng John witneffith .Alfo ye fhall goo
to men ilayne or drowned Or of sodeyn deth . Or murderyng in
howfes .And to trefoure founde . And truely kepe the plee} longyng
to the Croun And the names of them that be gylty . ye fhall
do to be wryten in the Crouner Rolle . And truely certyfye the
kyng or to his Councell . when ye be lawfully requyred theife
Article} and other that to the offyce longeth ye lhall to your
konnyng And power truely execute And kepe foo helpe you god
and all seyntis And bi this boke &c
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 393
SACRM xxnijor COMBURGENZ [Folio
[THE OATH OF THE COMPANY OF TWENTY-FOUR.]
Ye fchall 3efe good and trew Councell to your Meire all
this yere enfuyng as ofte tyme as yt nedith and whan ye be
required to youre Connyng and power so helpe me god & all
seynt
SACRM p HOIE ADMISS IN LIBERTATEM
[THE OATH FOR A MAN ADMITTED TO THE LIBERTY.]
J lhall be ffeithfull and lawfull to oure lorde the kynge and
to his ayres . And Juftifiable to meire & Bailliff} of this towne
that nowe be hath be or lhalbe . And the ffredoms and viages
of the faide toun to my power maynteyn and lufteyn And the
Councell of the same well & treuly hele & kepe so helpe me
god and all seyntis
SACRM DECENAR
[THE OATH OF THE TITHING-MAN.]
Ye lhall well & truely enquere and jpfent all man9 of ffraies
blodefhedis daggers fwyrdis billis Gleffis and all other man9
wepons And ftavis drawen Agayne the peafe . And of tachemen-
tis broken from the Bailliffis or ther mynyfters And of all man9
of herborowers Ageynlt the syffe And of all homefokyns
And herkeners under mennys wyndowes And of all comyn
chiders and comyn nyght walkers and of all comyn Sonday
Dyners . 327 (all brekefafte kepers in the tyme of dyvine f9uice
& in the time of f9mons And all mann9 of pfones that by
vitailes as eggf butter and cheie and all other vitailes affore
they come into the m9ket afiigned therfore and that you
lhall prefent all foche pfones so doing) Also ye lhall
enquere and prefent in tyme of leetis And at all tymes ye [Folio iaoa
lhall make true enqueraunce and true pfentacori of thei} Articles
And all other that longen to thoffice And lett not for love mede
nor promyfe that ye owe to ony pfone nor other wyfe doo than
Right wyll to your Confience &c 327 (and ther ale to be fettlyd
to coteyn xij gallons off clere ale accordinge to the mayors crye
& that they kepe this prefent all ale howfys and typlynge
327 These words have been added to this ordinance in a later hand.
394 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
hovvfys wch be not bownd by Recognifaunce according to the
kinges act of parlyment therfor made and to prefent all evyll
rule kepers as playe at dice card &c bowllf & other unlawful
games Of all blockf and muckhillf in the] ftretes to annoynace
And that you go to fee that all bruares do brue good and
fufficient & holfome ale for mans body & that their tobes be
gayne & yi they fell w* no meafure but it be enfealed)
SACRM PISTORUM
[THE OATH OF BAKERS.]
Ye (hall well and truely ferfe this toun in your Crafte of
all the poyntes pteyng to the fame . ffor all this yere enfuyng
And kepe your affife in bakyng as ye fhall be charged be your
Meire after the forme and ftatute that fome tyme was made
ordeyned at Wyncheftur bi the Councell of the Realme and
duely to kepe your affife that fhall be Affigned to you be youre
Maifters the next day of plees After the market holden foo
helpe you god and all seyntis &c
SACRM MAGISTRI ARTIS PISTORUM
[THE OATH OF A MASTER OF THE BAKERS' CRAFT.]
Ye fhall truely enferch and oufee all maner of poyntis to youre
Crafte longyng & dependyng . That is to fey that ye fhall fee that
euy baker within this town dwellyng {hall bake all this 3ere
enfuyng good and fufficiaunt pafte of all man9 of greynys well
wrought and of good bultell with all other poyntes dependyng to
[Folio iaob.] the fame Crafte. And if ye fynde any Man doo the contrary in ony
poynte thereof that then {hull ye pvte you in devoure to the
amendment of the fame deffaute . And {forthwith make relacon
and certyfy the Meire of ony fuche pfone so offendyng and treff-
pafmg in this be halfe . Noo thing therof to concele for lofe mede
nor pmyfe otherwife than right wyll . And duely to take your
Affife of the Meire the next daye of the plees after the market
holden so helpe you god & all seyntis &c
SACRM CISSOR
[THE OATH OF TAILORS.]
Ye {hall duely and truely ferche and ouerfee all man9 of
poyntes to Taillours Crafte pteynyng . And if 56 fynde any tref-
paflbure trefpafe or defavte in the feide Crafte Then ye {hall
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 395
that trefpalfour for his trefpafe and deffautes dewly and truely and
indifferently bi the Auctorite of youre Ordinaunce correcte and
punyfch Savyng Alonly that if it happyn contrauerfy or debate
pcially among you here after to fall that contraufy or debate the
punyfchment ther of to be referued to the meire Alllb ye fhall
Sfent and make levewe of all maner pfones that be Abled in your
* . [Folio iaia.]
tyme too lett vp and occupie your occupacion os maifter . And
them i^tifie to the Meire after the conftitucion of your Crafte . And
this ye fhall nott lett too doo for lofe ffauour mede nor promyfe
that ye haue made to any pfone ne for hate malice or evyll wyll
to any pfone doo other than conciens wyll so helpe you god and
all feyntis & be this boke &c
SACRM CARNIFICIUM & PISCERUM
[THE OATH OF BUTCHERS AND FISHERS.]
Ye mall duely and truely enferche and overfee all man9
poyntes dependyng to your Crafte called that no mane-
bocher or ffyliher sell within this toun any maner corupte ffleffh
or ffiflhe the whiche is not holfom to mannys body And contrary
to the ftatute therof made bi Auctorite of pliament . And when
ye fynde any fuche trefpafe or defaute ye fhall the name of the
same trefpalfour fforth with fertifie the Meire . And all fuche
fflefihe or ffyflhe so founde defectife ye mail kepe vnto the Meire
hafe therof A sight and direcion . Allib ye fhall truely enferche
that euy fforeyn Bocher that fell ffleffhe in the kyteftallis bryng
with hym all such hydes and Talowe as be longed to all fuche
ffleflh as thei or any of theym bryng with theym to fell . And if
ye fynde any doo the contrari ye mail certifie the Meire therof
fforth with And this ye fhall nott lett to doo for mede promyfe CFolio II2b-]
lofe nor ffauour that ye owe to any pfone or pfones ne for malice
ne evill will other doo then Conciens will . so helpe you god and
all seyntis &c
SACRM ALLUTAR CORASSATOR
[THE OATHS OF SHOEMAKERS AND CORDWAINERS.]
Ye Ihull duely and truely enferch and ouerfee all maner
poyntes longyng to Cordwyn9 crafte 328 (Corior crafte and Barkers
crafte) . ffirfte no man9 cordwyn fell within this town botis nor fhois
328 The words " Coriour crafte and Barkers crafte," have been ruled in the Liber.
396 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
but of good & fufficiaunt ftuffe 329 (According to the ftatute And)
that no corior selle any leddur but if it be fufficiaunly curried
329 (And thorowe tannyd and) curried with fufficiant ftuffe . And
that it be good & able And that no Tanner within this town
nor Countre sell within this toun any maner leddur but if it be
fufficiauntli tanned 329 (accordyng to the ftatute And that noo barker
hafe any ffatte ftandyng in her Tannhillis for hit is contrary to
the ftatute and grete difcerte to the kyngf liege people) And
if ye fynde any of those Artificers doo the contrary in any of
theife poyntes ye fhall the lame leddur fo vnfufficiauntly wrought
kepe in your Awarde and fforthwith make relacion to the Meire
[Folio i22a.i the names of hym or them that foo trefpaifed and offended in
theife poyntes or any of theym . And this ye mull not lette to
doo [for lofe] mede nor promyfe nor for your synguler Av-
[auntage] for wrath hate or evill will doo to any pfone [other
than] conlience wyll Soo god you helpe and all [seyntis] &c
330 (& contentes of this booke)
SACRM ARTIS CANDELAR CERE
[THE OATH FOR THE CRAFT OF TORCHMAKERS.]
Ye Ihull duely and truely ferche and enquere all the circute
of this ffraunchie} that maner of pfone within this toun sell or
putt to fale any torche or torchett or other thing difceitffully
made in youre Occupacion . Other than is made of lawfull ftuffe .
Accordyng to the ordinaunce bi the Councell of this toun therof
made and enfealed Accordyng to the feide ordinaunce . And yf
ye fynde any thyng ffawty ye lhall that thing kepe And certifie
the Meire ther of And the name of hym or theym that fuche
puttith to fale And no thyng therof conceale but true ferche
and Jfentacon in this be halfe make So helpe me god and all
seyntis and be this boke &c
1Mb.] SACRM FFULLONU TEXTOR
[THE OATH OF THE FULLERS.]
Ye lhall in your Crafte called . N . duely and truely serche
Amongft the Artificers of the fame Crafte that thei and euychone
329 The following words have been ruled in the Liber: — "Accordyng to
" the statute And," " And thorowe tannyd and," " accordyng to the statute
"And that noo barker hafe any ffatte standyng in her Tannhillis for hit is contrary
"to the statute and grete discerte to the kyngs liege people."
230 The words " contentes of this booke " have been written in a later hand.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 397
of [theym] doo truely her warkemanlhippe in their Occup[acion]
with all man9 of poyntes to the lame occupacion p[teynyng]
And if ye ffynde eny of the feide Artificers defectife or tref-
pafyng contrari in any poynte or Article of the statute and
ordinanuce ther of made . That than ye lhall jlfent hym or theym
to the Meire As often as thei so be founde offendyng what he
trefpafith withoute Any conceilment in any parte ther of So helpe
me god and all seyntis &c
SACRM SCRUTAT TEXTOR
[THE OATH OF THE SEARCHER OF TEXTILES.]
Ye mail duly and truely ferche euy weke as often as hit
nedith euyche houfholder of your occupacion within the ffraunchei}
of this toun . That thei weiffe no man9 of cloth within this Toun
or ffraunchei} that fhalbe puttoo fale . But fuche as is fufficiant
and true draparry And that the warpe and the wofe be like to
onee colour . And fufficiaunt ftuffe for the lenght and brede that
mall be Ieide ffor . And if ye ffynde any clothe clothes or dagouns
that lhalbe putto fale that is nott fufficiaunte Coloure fluffe and [Folio
warkemanlhipe in any poynte that longeth to the Occupacion .
Then ye (hall fforthwith gefe relacion to the Meire the names
of the owner . and of the warkeman of fuch clothe clothes or
dagouns withoute any lenger conceiling the fame vppon the
payne that is ordeyned therof bi Acte of Affemble be admytted
bi Affent of all the town ye mail nott lett this to doo
for lofe or promyfe that ye owe to doo So helpe you god and
all seyntes & be this &c
SACRM CONSTABUL
[THE OATH OF THE CONSTABLE.]
Ye mall well and truely ferve the kyng our fouayne lorde
in the office of Conftablelhipe within the prefynkete of the . N .
quarter of this toun . Jn tyme of wache . ye mall geve dewe com-
aundement and charge in the kynge be halfe to the wachemen
fuche as fhalbe fomoned bi the f9iaunt of the quarter too A pere
Afore you . That thei kepe and make due wache and true from the
tyme of your charge giffyng vnto the fonne be vpon the morow
And that thei kepe ther owne quarter . And come intoo none
other tyll thei be requyred of ony other wache . Or but ony home [Folio
blowe ony ffray made or owte crye parell of ffyre or Children
And all fuche other . Allfo that thei be hafe them in godely wife
398 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
in kepyng of theire wache ftylly goyng withoute noyfe or lowde
fpeche . Allfo if any ftraunge man or woman happen to come to
this toun bi nyghtis tyme . That then thei honeftly to examoun
fuch man or woman . And if thei be not suflpecioufe bryng hem
till An Jnne . And if thei be founde fuflpecioufe or vntrewe then
that thei be brought to warde vnto the Maire and baillifff have
hadde examynacion of them Allfo ye lhall in youre pibn to your
myght and power at all tymes be redy to Affifte Maire baillifff
and other ther mynyfters in execucion or doyng theire office if
nede require And refute and denounce all euell doers yf ye
knowe them Theife poyntes and Articles and all other to youre
office of Conftableihipe Appteynyng ye fhall be redy . And doo
your devoure to youre myght and power fo helpe you god &
holydome & be this boke &c
ABIURATIO LATRONUM JURE UT PATET
(Folio 1343.]
[THE OATH OF ROBBERS ABJURING THE KINGDOM.]
Hco audis dne Coronator qd ego . N . de tli loco sum latro bidenciu vl
alicui8 al?ius aial vel omicidia vni8 vel plurimu & felonus dni Regis
Angt & mtta mala & latrocinia vl huis in tram fuam feci abiuro ?am
dni Regis H Angt & qd debeo feftinar me v9f9 portum . N . &c qd dedifti
mihi & qd non debeam deir de alia via & fi faciam volo qd sum
captus licut latr & felons dni Regis & qd ad portu -pdictam queram
diligen? t*nfitu & non expectabo illuc fluxum & vnu refluxum si
tanfitum here po?o & nifi tanto fpacio here po?o tanfitum ibo in quolib}
die in mari ufq} genua mea temptans tan(ire & nifi hoc po?o infra
xl dies continues mittam me i?um ad ecciiam sicut latro & felonus
dni Regis sic me adiuuet deus 831
Thus here f9 Crouner that J R O am a ffeloun of our lorde
the kyng . And ffelony J haue done like as J haue confeffid to you
&c Wherefore J for fwere the Realme of Englond . And that J
fhall hye me to the porte of Newecaftell vppon tyne . the whiche
ye haue geven me . And J mail not goo oute of the high weye .
And yf J doo J will that J betakyn as a ffeloun of our feide
lorde the kyng . And att the feide porte J fhall afke paifage . And
J fhall not Abyde there but Afflode and a Ebbe if J may haue
paffage . And if J may nott hafe paifage . J fhall euy day goo in
331 The translation following this on the same folio is written by a later hand.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
399
to the fee vnto my knees Afkyng paflage . And if J may nott
hafe hit in . xl . dayes next . J lhall Admitte me to the Chyrche
Agayne os a ffeloun of our feide lorde the kyng foo helpe me
god and All Seyntys &c
[GRANT OF A RENT CHARGE.]
OMNIBUS Xpi fidelib} Ad
quos prefens Scriptum indenta-
cum puenerit Wiftms Benett
senior de Bukbroke in com Norfit
hufbondman et Wiftms Benet
films & heres meus Saltm in dno
fempiternam Noueritis nos Wiftm
& Wiftm vnanimi affenfu & con-
cenfu dediife conceffiffe & hoc
prefenti Scripto nro indentato
confirmative Johanni Marchall ju-
nior de Norhampton ffuller vnum
Annualem redditum quatuor
folid bone & legalis monete Ang-
lie fiend tenend & Annuatim
percipiend die? Annualem red-
ditum quatuor Iblid |}fa? Johanni
Marchall execu? & affign tiiis
A die confectionis pfentm vfq3
ad finem termini quindecim Anno£
extunc px fequ & plenarie com-
plend Soluend Annuatim durante
termino pdict die? annualem red-
ditum jpfa? Jofti execu? vel affigfi
fuis in fefto ofn Sco£ p equales
porciones Et li contingat die?
Annualem redditu quatuor soli-
do£ aretro fore in pti vel in toto
poft feftu $dcm per octo dies
tune Jdci Wiftms &
To ALL the faithful of Christ
to whom the present writing in-
dented shall come William Benett
senior of Bukbroke [Bugbrook]
in thecountyof Northampton hus-
bandman and William Benet my
son and heir send greeting ever-
lasting in the Lord You must know
that we William and William
with one assent and consent have
given granted and by this present
writing of ours indented have
confirmed to John Marchall ju-
nior of Northampton fuller one
annual rent of four shillings of
good and lawful money of Eng-
land to have and to hold and
annually to receive the said
annual rent of four shillings
to the aforesaid John Marchall his
executors and assigns from the
day of the completion of these
presents to the end of the term
of fifteen years thence next fol-
lowing and fully to be completed
To pay annually during the term
aforesaid the said annual rent to
the aforesaid John his executors
or assigns on the feast of All
Saints by equal portions And if
it happen that the said annual
rent of four shillings shall be in
arrear in part or in whole after
the feast aforesaid for eight days
then the aforesaid William and
[Folio I24b.]
400
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Wiftms p fe & hered fuis volunt
& p pfentes concedunt qd bene
licebit |!fato Johanni Marchall
execu? & aflign fuis in Claufo
nro ad finem ville de Bukbroke
$dic? iacent ex parte Orientai
eiuidm ville intrare & diftringere
diftrictones q3 fie cap? licite af-
portare abducere & penes fe
retinere quoufq3 de Annual red-
ditu jldco & eius arreragijs fi
que fuint eis plenaris fuit fatif-
fac? & pfolut Et nos vero jldci
Wiiims & Wiiims & hered nri
dcm Annualem redditum quatuor
folido^ jlfato Johanni Marchall
execu? & affigri fuis contra omnes
gentes waranti3abimus & de-
[Foiio 125*.] fendemus durante termino pre-
dco£ quindecim Anno£ p jpfentes
Et pteria pofuimus $fatum Jofeem
Marchall in plena & pacifica pof-
feflione & feifina diet Annual
reddi? per deliberatoem quatuor
denario^ Argenti quos ei deliber-
auims die Da? ^fentiu nomine
poffeflfionis & feifine eiufdem in
ptem folutonis diet Annual red-
ditus Ac infup cum pdci Wiiims
Benet fenior & Wiiims Benet
films & heres meus p Scriptum
nrm obligatoriu cuius da? eft die
confectionis jlfem^nim teneamur
& obligamr & vterq} firm
William for themselves and their
heirs are willing and by these
presents concede that it shall be
quite lawful for the aforesaid John
Marchall his executors and assigns
to enter in our close at the end of
the town of Bukbrook [Bug-
brook] aforesaid lying on the
east part of the said town and to
make distraint and the distraints
so taken lawfully to carry and
take away and retain in their
own custody until satisfaction
and payment shall have been
fully made to them concerning
the annual rent aforesaid and
its arrears if any And we indeed
the aforesaid William and Wil-
liam and our heirs the said an-
nual rent of four shillings to the
aforesaid John Marchall his ex-
ecutors and assigns against all
people will guarantee and defend
during the term of fifteen years
aforesaid by these presents And
besides we have put the aforesaid
John Marchall in full and peace-
ful possession and seisin of the
said annual rent by the delivery
of four pennies of silver which
we have delivered to him on the
day of the date of these presents
in the name of the said pos-
session and seisin in part pay-
ment of the said annual rent And
further whereas the aforesaid
William Benet Senior and Wil-
liam Benet my son and heir by
our writing obligatory whose
date is on the day of the com-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
401
p fe p toto & in folid teneamr
& obligam1 Jfato Jofti in decem
libris bone & legalis monete
Anglic Soluend infefto Omi Sco£
px futur poft da? pfentm put in
eodm fcripto obligatorio plenius
apparet Tamen jpdcus Johes
Marchall p fe execut & affign
fuis vult & p jpfentes concedit qd
li bene & pacifice Reant teneant
gaudiant & poffideant die? annual
redditu quatuor folid annuatim
ad feftum jldic? durante termino
jpdco vel li fufficiens diftrici in
diet Clauf p reddi? jldict inuent
fuit tociens quociens necefle fuit
durante termino pdco qd tune
jldcm Scriptum obligatorium p
nurl Reatur Alioquin in oni fuo
robore ftet & effcu Jn cuius rei
teftimoni uni parte iflx>£ Scripto^
indentat9 nos pen jpfatos Wiiim
& Wittm remanentem jpdcus
Jones Marchall Sigillum fuu
Appofuit Et alter vero pti ifto^
Scripto^ indenta? penes prefatum
Joftem Marchall remanen? Nos
gdcus Wiiims & Witims Sigilla
nra Appofuims da? vicefimo
quarto die menfis Martij
pletion of the presents are held
and bound and each of us by
himself is held and bound for
the entire sum to the aforesaid
John in ten pounds of good and
lawful money of England to be
paid on the feast of All Saints
next coming after the date of the
presents as in the same writing
obligatory more fully appears
But yet the aforesaid John
Marchall for himself his executors
and assigns is willing and by
these presents concedes that if
they shall well and peacefully
have hold enjoy and possess the
said annual rent of four shillings
every year at the feast aforesaid
during the term aforesaid or if
sufficient distraint shall have
been found in the said close for
the rent aforesaid as often as
shall be necessary during the
term aforesaid that then the
aforesaid writing obligatory shall
be held null and void otherwise
it must stand in all its force and
effect In testimony whereof to
one part of these writings in-
dented remaining in the custody
of us the aforesaid William
and William the aforesaid John
Marchall has put his seal and
to the other part of these writ-
ings indented remaining in the
custody of the aforesaid John
Marchall We the aforesaid
William and William have put
our seals Given on the 24th
day of the month of March
C C
402 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Anno Regni Regis Henrici [1487] in the 2nd year of the
feptimi poft conqueftum fecundo reign of King Henry the yth
after the Conquest
[ORDINANCE MADE IN LONDON FOR INN KEEPERS AND BAKERS.]
[Folio i25b.] Jntut° a o in libro G ffol cxxxti332
Jt is ordeigned by Adam of Bury Maire and Alderman of the
Citee of London that non hoftiller nor herberiour owith to make
no man9 of brede in their houfes to felle to their geftys but they
fhall by their brede for their geftys and for their horfes of the
Comon Bakers of the Cytee. So that euy bred be merked w* the
marke of the Baker of the whiche the brede was bought. So
that euy pfone may knowe that the brede be of right Affife and
of verry value that it owyth to be. And than may the hoftyllers
and herbiours Avowe the fale of heir brede by the merke of the
baker. And yf any brede be founde in the houfes of the hoftyl-
lers and herbiours to felle Jn any man9 then in the forme Afore-
feide. That than they fhall haue the fame penaunce that the
baker fhall haue yf they at any tyme fhalbe therof Atteynt &c
[LEASE OF SAINT LEONARD'S HOSPITAL.]
[Folio xa6a.] INT VILLA ET JOHEZ PECK BETWEEN THE TOWN AND
PRO SCI LEONARDI HOSPITL JOHN PECK FOR THE HOSPITAL
OF ST LEONARD333
Hec indentura facta in? Tho- This indenture made be-
mam Hunt Maiorem ville Norht tween Thomas Hunt 384 mayor of
& viginti quatuor Comburgenfes the town of Northampton and the
eiufdm ville fibi Jura? ex pte 24 sworn burgesses of the same
vna et JoRem Pecke de Kyngef- town of the one part and John
thorp iuxa Norfrt Gent ex pte Peck of Kingsthorpe near North-
ampton Gent of the other part
332 This ordinance is preserved amongst the muniments of the City of London,
and is referred to on folio 3198 of the Liber Albus (compiled 1419) as: — "Item
"that no Hosteler shall make any bread, but shall buy it of the Bakers — G 135."
The Liber Albus, by H. T. Riley, 1861.
333 The Hospital of St. Leonard was situated in the hamlet of East Cotton, and
parish of Hardingston, and was said to have been founded by William the Conqueror,
for the maintenance of a master and leprous brethren and sisters.
334 Thomas Hunt was mayor of the town in 1456-7, 1465-6, 1473-4, and 1481-2.
He was one of the representatives at the parliament held 28th Henry VI.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
403
altera teftatur qd jpdci Maior &
Comburgenfes sui conceiferunt
tradiderunt & diuiferunt pfat
Joni hofpitale suum Sci Leon-
ardi in Cotoii iuxta NorM cu
omnib} terris ten redditib3
pratis pafcuis paftur ac omib}
alijs comoditatib} pficius & ptin
fuis quibufcumq} eidfn hofpitali
aliquo modo ptinenr seu con-
tingent in Com pdict seu alibi
vna cu Capella Sci Thome fup
pontem Auftralem ville NorRt
fldict & ptin fuis Rend & tenend
eidm Joni ad ?minum vite fue
Reddendo & foluendo inde an-
nuatim durante tmino pdco Ca-
pellano Cantarie eiufdm hofptlis
qui p tempe fuit p maiorem ville
pdce p tempe exiftent & fuos
Comburgenfes loci ordinar pfen-
tand Octo marcas ad quatuor
anni?minos vfuales vel Jnueniend
eidfn Capellano victum fuum ut
in Cibo & potu ac soluendo eidm
Capellano quatuor marcas & tres
virg panni Coloris ratonabii p
annum Necnon deliband ei3m
Capeilo manfum infra hofpitale
jldcum p Capeii itun exiftent jp-
antea ordina? Et idm JoRes
fupportabit omia on9a ordinaria
witnesseth that the aforesaid
mayor and his burgesses have
granted delivered and divided to
the aforesaid John their hospital of
St Leonard in Coton [Cotton] near
Northampton with all its lands and
tenements rents fields meadows
pastures and all other commodi-
ties profits and appurtenances
whatsoever to the same hospital
in any manner pertaining or
belonging in the county aforesaid
or elsewhere together with the
chapel of St Thomas on the
South bridge of the town of
Northampton aforesaid and its
appurtenances To have and to
hold to the same John for the
term of his life by rendering and
paying from thence every year
during the term aforesaid to the
chaplain of the Chantry of the
same hospital for the time being
to be presented by the mayor of
the town aforesaid for the time
being and his burgesses in the
ordinary place eight marks at
the four usual periods of the year
or by finding for the same chap-
lain his victuals both food and
drink and by paying to the
same chaplain four marks and
three yards of cloth of decent
colour in the year also by de-
livering to the same chaplain
the dwelling within the hospital
aforesaid before time assigned
for the chaplain there being
And the same John will take
upon himself all burdens ordinary
CC 2
404
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
& extra ordinaria reddit & s^uicia
eidm hofpitii qualit9cumq3 incum-
bentia durante te^mino jlnotato
Et etiam dcus Jones soluet
Annuatim qualib3 septimano
t9mino Jdco cuidam leprofo vel
leprofe qui vel que p tempe
fuit ifom quinq3 denar & femel
p annu duas pnas baconis
& vnm Butfellum ffarine Auea^ .
Et dcus Jones omia domos
[Folio i26b.] & edificia . ac ecciiam dicti
hofpitlis manutenebit repabit &
fuftentabit bn & computent fum-
tib3 fuis pp'is & expenf9 durante
termino fldco Et ea in bono ftatu
in fine t9mini sui dimittet Et
jlfat Jones nullam arborem ifom
pilernet nifi p supvif9 Maioris
ville Nornt jldce p tempe exiftent
p repatoe & neceflarijs tangent9
ecciie Hue domib3 hofpitlis pdci
aut hufbondrie eiufdem nee aliqua
terras seu tenementa eiufdem
hoipitlis Alicui alij ultra ftatum
liue t^minum fuum ^dcum Abfq3
licencia dicti maior & viginti
quatuor Comburgenfium fuo^ aut
eo^ fucceflb^ dimittet Pruifo
semp qd si dcus JoRes omia
domos & edificia ac ecciiam
dci hofpiti infra vnu anm px
fequ poft debitam Jmunitoem p
and extraordinary rents and ser-
vices upon the same hospital in
any way whatsoever incumbent
during the term aforesaid And
also the said John will pay
annually for each week during
the term aforesaid to each male
or female leper who shall be there
at the time fivepence and once in
the year two gammons of bacon
and one bushel of oatmeal And
the said John all the houses and
buildings and the church of the
said hospital shall maintain
repair and keep up well and
competently at his own proper
costs and expenses during the
term aforesaid and shall leave
them in good condition at the
end of his term And the afore-
said John will cut down no tree
there except by supervision of
the mayor of the town of North-
ampton aforesaid for the time
being for repair or for necessary
works relating to the church or
houses of the hospital aforesaid
or to the husbandry of the same
nor shall he demise any lands or
tenements of the said hospital to
any other beyond his state or
term aforesaid without license of
the said mayor and his 24 bur-
gesses or their successors Pro-
vided always that if the said John
shall not have repaired nor caused
to be repaired and made good
well and sufficiently at his own
proper costs all the houses and
buildings and the church of the
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
405
maiorem dee ville p tempe exif-
tent eiSm Jofii inde fact bene &
fufficient9 suis ppijs sumtib} non
repauit nee repari & emendari
fec9it tune bene lieeat dels maiori
& Comburgens in dcm hoipitle
cu ornib} ?ris seu reddit9 prat9
palcuis paftur ac oiriib} alijs com-
oditatib} pficuis & ptin fuis hof-
pitli pdco aliquo modo ptin rein-
trare & ea in priftino ftatu fuo
reRere & tenere jpfent indentur
conceffione tradit5e & diuiiione
in aliquo non obftante Et ad
omia jpmiffa expte dci Jonis bn
fideliter tenend & pimplend Jdm
Jofies concedit fe teneri & obli-
gari pfat9 maiori & fucceiTorib}
fuis firmit9 p jkentes Jn cuius
rei teftimoniu vni pti iftius in-
dentur penes pfat9 JoHem re-
manenti pfat9 Maior ex affenfu
xxiiijor Comburgens fuo^ p9dco^
Sigillum officij maiorat9 fui p9dci
Appofuit Cuius vero altera pars
penes p9fat Maiorem & Cobur-
genfes fuos p9dcos sigillo ipius
Johis refidet conlignat9 Dat9 apud
Norftt vicefimo tertio die meniis
marcij Anno regni Regis Ed-
wardi quarti poft conqm tertio
decimo &c
said hospital within one year next
following after due warning by
the mayor of the said town for
the time being to the same John
thereupon given then it may be
quite lawful for the said mayor
and burgesses to re-enter into
the said hospital with all its
lands or rents fields meadows
pastures and all other commodi-
ties profits and appurtenances
in any way belonging to the
hospital aforesaid and to restore
and keep them in their former
condition the concession delivery
and division of the present in-
denture in anything notwith-
standing And to all the premisses
on the part of the said John well
and faithfully to hold and fulfil
the same John allows that he is
held and bound to the aforesaid
mayor and his successors firmly
by the presents In testimony
whereof to the one part of this
indenture remaining in the cus-
tody of the aforesaid John the
aforesaid mayor by the assent of
his 24 burgesses aforesaid has
put the seal of his office of mayor [Folio
aforesaid and the other part of
it remains in the custody of the
aforesaid mayor and his burgesses
aforesaid stamped with the seal
of the same John Given at North-
ampton on the 23rd day of the
month of March [1473] in the
1 3th year of the reign of King
Edward the 4th after the Con-
quest &c
4o6
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[WRIT TO THE SHERIFF
Henricus del gra Rex Angi
& ffranc & Dux HiM Vic Buk
saltm supplicauit nobis Jones
Motte vt cum ipo de vita sua
& mutilatioe membro^ luo£ p
Jonem Water de Whitechirche
& Laurencm Jonnefferuant Wal-
ter de Whitechirche gauit9 &
manifefte comminatus exiftat .
Velim8 p fecuritate fua in hac
parte puidere . Nos supplicatoe
p9dce annuentes tibi p9cipifn fir-
mit9 iniungentes qd p9fatos Jonem
Water Jonem Harle & Laurenciu
coram te corporal it9 venire fac
& ipos ad sufficientes manucap-
tores inueniend qui eos manucape
voluint sub c9ta pena sibi pte
ronabilit9 imponend p qua nobis
refponder voluis qd ipi dampnu
vel malum aliquod eidem Joni
Motte de corpore suo non fac
nee fieri pcurabit quouilmodo
compellas Et fi hoc coram te f ac9e
recufaSint tune ipos Johem Water
Johem Harle & Laurenciu px
prifone nre comittas in eadem
saluo custodiend quoufq} hoc
gatis fac9e voluint . Et cum se-
curitatem illam sic cepis nos
inde in Cancellar nra sub sigillo
tuo diflincte & apte sine ditone
reddas c9tiores hoc bre
OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.]
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to the sheriff of
Buckinghamshire Greeting John
Motte335 has petitioned us that
whereas he is grievously and
manifestly threatened concerning
his life and mutilation of his
limbs by John Water of Whit-
church and
Lawrence Jonnes servant of
Walter of Whitchurch we would
be willing to provide for his
security in this matter We
assenting to the petition aforesaid
strictly charge and enjoin you
that you cause the aforesaid John
Water John Harle and Lawrence
to come bodily before you and
compel them to find sufficient
sureties who would be willing to
become bail for them under a
fixed penalty reasonably to be
put upon them for which you will
answer to us that they do not
inflict or cause to be inflicted
any damage or mischief whatever
upon the same John in any way
as to his body And if they shall
refuse to do this in your presence
then you must commit them John
Water John Harle and Lawrence
to our nearest prison to be kept
safely in the same until they
shall be willing to do this of their
own accord and when you shall
have so taken that security you
must distinctly and openly inform
335 John Motte was mayor of the town in 1527-8 1538-9.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
407
nob remittentes T me ipo apud
Weftm viij° die Aprilis Anno f
n septimo Monter
[WRIT TO THE SHERIFF
Henncus del gra Rex Angl
& ffranc & Dux Hifcn vie Bed
saltm cum in ftatuto in pliamento
dni E nup Regis Angt pgeni-
toris riri apud Weftm nup tento
edito puifum sit qd subvicecomes
& clicus vie in officijs suis ulta
vnu annu non morienf. Ac iam
intellixims qd Thomas Stretton
nunc in officio ciici vie comp9dci
p plures annos fletit conta for-
mam ftatuti p9dci minus iufte. Nos
volentes ftatutu p9dcm in omib}
inuiolabilit obleruari tibi p9cipi-
mus firmit} iniungentes qd si ita
eft tune ipm Thomam ab officio
p9dco sine dilone ammoueri &
aliu ciicum magis idoneu &
fidelem p quo refpondere voluis
loco suo poni & deputari fac
iuxta formam ftatuti p9dci T me
ipo apud Weftm xmo die No-
venVbr Anno r n septimo
bre de ftatuto
Wymbyflh
us of it in our Chancery under
your seal without delay returning
this brief to us Witness myself
at Westminster the 8th day of
April [1516] in the yth year of
our reign Monter
OF BEDFORDSHIRE.]
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France
and Lord of Ireland to the sheriff
of Bedfordshire Greeting Whereas
in a statute issued in a parliament
of the Lord Edward lately King
of England our progenitor lately
held at Westminster it was pro-
vided that the under-sheriff and
clerk of the sheriff should not
continue in their office beyond
one year And now we have been
given to understand that Thomas
Stretton now in the office of
clerk of the sheriff of the county
aforesaid has remained for several
years contrary to the form of the
statute aforesaid illegally We
wishing that the statute aforesaid
in all things should be observed
inviolably charge and strictly
enjoin you that if this is so then
youcause him Thomas without
delay to be removed from the
office aforesaid and another clerk
more suitable and faithful for
whom you will answer to be put
and appointed in his place accor-
ding to the form of the statute
aforesaid Witness myself at
Westminster the loth day of No-
vember in the yth year of our reign
Brief about the statute
Wymbyssh
Folio
408
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[LETTERS PATENT OF 3RD HENRY VIII., Granting free pardon
to John Collet.]
[Folio ia8a.]
Henricus del gra Rex Anglie
& ffrancie & Dominus Hifcnie
Omnib} balliuis & fidelib} fuis
ad quos p^ientes ire puen^int
saltm Sciatis qd de gra rira spali
ac ex c9ta scientia & mero motu
nris pdonauimus remiffim8 & re-
laxauimus Joni Collet nup de
Norhampton in Com Nornt Cor-
nylbure alias dco Joni Colit de
Norhampton in Com Shomaker
alias dco Joni Colette de Nor-
hampton Yoman alias dco Joni
Collett nup de Norhampton la-
borer alias dco Joni Colleyte
nup de Dul'toun in Com Norht
hufbondman alias dco Johi Colete
nup de Norhampton in Com
Nornt Geylour seu quocumq} alio
noie cenceatr omniod tanlgref-
iiones foriffcur penas debit
mefpriliones contemptus & im-
petitoes p ipm Jonem ante nonu
diem Nouenrbr vltimo j)?it conta
formam ftatuto^ de signis litJta?
panno^ & capucio^ ac retent5ib}
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to all bailiffs and
their faithful men to whom the
present letters shall come Greet-
ing You must know that of our
special grace and of our certain
knowledge and mere motion we
have pardoned remitted and re-
laxed to John Collet lately of
Northampton in the county of
Northampton cordwrainer other-
wise called John Colit of North-
ampton in the county [of North-
ampton] shoemaker otherwise
called John Colette of Northamp-
ton yeoman otherwise called John
Collett lately of Northampton
labourer otherwise called John
Colleyte lately of Duston in the
county of Northampton husband-
man otherwise called John Colete
lately of Northampton in the
county of Northampton tailor (?)
or by whatsoever other name he
may be known all kinds of tres-
passes forfeits penalties debts
misprisions contempts and im-
peachments by him John before
the ninth day of November last
past against the form of the
statutes concerning the emblems
of the livery of clothes and hoods
and concerning retinues whatso-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
409
quibufcumq} fac? siue ppetrat
vnde punitio caderet in demand
debit seu in finem & redemptoem
aut in alias penas pecuniarias
aut imprilbnamenta statutis $-
dcis non obftante Et infup ex gra
& sciencia & motu nris jpdcis p-
donauimus remiflim* & relaxaui-
mu8 eidem Jofii sectam pacis nre
que ad nos v9fus ipm ptinet p
omnimod pditdib} raptib} mu-
lie£ abiuratoib} rebellionib} in-
furrectoib} confpiratoibus cambi-
partiis manutenenciis confedera-
toib) imbraciariis extorfionib}
mefprifionib} ignoranciis con-
temptib) concelamentis & decep-
t5ib} p ipm JoRem ante dcm
nonu diem Novembr quali?
cumq3 fac? siue ppetra? necnon
ommod iudicia penas mortis &
executoes v9fus pfatum Joftem
reddit siue adiudicand occionib}
jldcis seu ea^ aliqua Acetiam
vtlagar si que in ipm Joftem
hiis occ5ib3 seu ea^ aliqua fuint
pmulgat ac excut5es eo^dem &
firmam pacem nram ei inde con-
cedim3 Jta tamen qd stet recto
in Cur nra si quis v9fus eum
loqui voluit de pmiiris vel aliquo
flmifTo^ Et infup pdonauim8
remifim8 & relaxauim8 eidm JoRi
ever made or perpetrated from
which punishment should be in-
flicted on due demand either by
fine and redemption or by other
pecuniary penalties or imprison-
ments the statutes aforesaid not-
withstanding And besides of our
grace and knowledge and motion
aforesaid we have pardoned re-
mitted and relaxed to the same
John the suit of our peace which
belongs to us against him for
all kinds of treasons ravishments
of women abjurations rebellions
insurrections conspiracies cham-
perties maintenances confedera-
tions imbraceries extortions mis-
prisions ignorances contempts
concealments and deceptions by
him John before the said ninth day
of November in any way done or
perpetrated and also all kinds of
judgements penalties of death
and executions against the afore-
said John for rents or for adjudi-
cating actions aforesaid or any
one of them and also outlaw-
ries if any shall have been pro-
nounced against the same John
in these actions or any one
of them and the executions of
the same and we grant him our
firm peace in that respect But
yet so that he must stand up in
our Court if any person shall
wish to speak against him con
cerning the premisses or any one
of the premisses And further
wre have pardoned remitted and
relaxed to the same John chat- [Folio I28bO
410
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
catalla felonu & fugitiuo^ &
felonu de se deodand thefaurum
inventum ac ommod deftrucciones
& tanfgreffiones de viridi vel
venatoe venditoes bofco^ infra
foreftas & exta ante dcm nonu
diem Novenvbr infra regnu nrm
Angi et March Wait ein;s
& euent9 vnde punitio ca-
deret in demand debit seu in
finem & redemptoem aut in alias
penas pecuniarias seu in foril-
fcur bono^ & catallo^ aut im-
prifonamenta seu am^ciamenta
Coitatum villa^ vel singularum
pfonarum vel in on9atdem lifoi
ten eo£ qui nunqam tanfgreiTi
fuerunt vt hered execute^ vel t9-
retentiu Efcaeto^ vicecomitum &
alio^ huiufmodi & ome id quod
ad nos v^ius ipm Jofeem ptinet seu
ptinere pellet ex caufis supadictis
Et infup pdonauim8 remifim8 & re-
laxauim8 eidem JoRi ?cias & tcia^
?cias omnimod prifona^ in guerra
capto^ not* pgenitorib} siue ante-
ceiForib} nris quondam Regib}
Angt aut R ?tio nup de fco &
non de iure Regi Angt seu eo£
Alicui dco nono die Novembr
p eundem JoRem qualit^cumq}
debit ptinen siue spectan necnon
omniod demand t*nfgrelTiones
offenfas negligentias contemptus
mefpri-
tels of felons and fugitives and
suicides deodands treasure trove
and all kinds of destructions and
trespasses concerning vert or
hunting selling of wood within
forests and without before the
said ninth day of November
within our realm of England and
the marches of Wales issuing
and to issue whence punish-
ment should be inflicted on due
demand either by fine and re-
demption or by other pecuniary
penalties or by forfeitures of
goods and chattels or imprison-
ments or fines of communities
towns or single persons or by
obligation of free tenant (?) of
those who have never done
harm such as heirs executors or
tenants of land escheators sheriffs
and other persons of that kind
and everything that pertains or
can possibly pertain to us against
the same John in the causes above-
said And further we have par-
doned remitted and relaxed to
the same John the thirds and
thirds of thirds of all kinds of
prisoners taken in war to us our
progenitors or ancestors formerly
Kings of England or to Richard
the Third lately actually and not
lawfully King of England or to
any one of them on the said
ninth day of November by the
said John in any way appertaining
or belonging and also all kinds
of demands trespasses offences
negligences contempts mispri-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
411
liones & impetitiones p ipm
JoRem ante eundem norm diem
Novembr conta formam tarn
quo^cumq3 statute^ ordinatoum
& puifionu fact9 sive edit
de pquifitionib} acceptatoib}
lectSib} publicatoib} notificatdib}
& executdib} quibufcumq} qua^-
cumq5 lra£ & bullar aplica^ &
omi alio£ statute^ & puifionu j}-
textu quo£ aliqua secta v9fus
eundem Joftem p billam vel p
bfe de pmunire fact seu alimodo
quocumq} p aliqua matia ante
dcm nonu diem Novembr facta
fieri valeat qm quo^cumq} alio£
statutes fact siue ppetra? ante
eundem nonu diem NovenTbr
statutis ordinatoib} & puifionib}
illis non obftantib} Prouifo semp
qd piens pdonatio rira ad aliquos
fabricatores falte monete in all-
quo se non extendat Jn cuius
rei testimoniu has Iras firas fieri
fecim8 patentes. Tefte me ipo
apud Weftm primo die Martij
Anno regni nri ?tio &c
p ipm Regem
Skyptoun
Henricus die gra Rex Angi
& ffranc et Dominus HiM dittis
sibi Ric Emibn Wiftmo Chambre
Thome Haielwode Wiftmo Herte-
well et Rico Burton.
sions and impeachments by him
John before the same ninth day
of November against the form of
whatsoever statutes ordinances
and provisions made or issued
concerning perquisites accept-
ances lections publications noti-
fications and excuses whatsoever
and of whatsoever letters and
bulls apostolic and all other
statutes and provisions under
pretext whereof any suit against
the same John could be made
by bill or by brief of praemunire
or by any other way whatso-
ever for any matter done before
the said ninth day of November
as of whatsoever other statutes [Folio I2<3a-]
done or perpetrated before the
same ninth day of November
those statutes ordinances and
provisions notwithstanding Pro-
vided always that this our pre-
sent pardon shall not extend in
any way to any coiners of false
money In testimony whereof we
have caused these our letters to
be made patent Witness myself
at Westminster the ist day of
March in the 3rd year of our
reign &c
By the King himself
Skyptoun
Henry by the grace of God
King of England and France and
Lord of Ireland to his beloved
Richard Emson William Cham-
bre Thomas Haslewode William
Hertewell and Richard Burton
412
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Saltm Sciatis qd cum Collates
regni riri Angi in parliamento
nro apud Weftm nono die No-
venrbr vltimo p?ito tento de
auifamento & alleniu drio£
spualiu & temporalium in eodem.
parliamento nro auctoritate fira
exiftefi ad honore dei & p tuitoe
& defenfione dci regni nri con-
cefferint nofo quedam subfidia
soluend & leuand modo & forma
sequent .videit dequait pfona ar-
tifice non nata infra dcm regnu
firm Angt nee indigent fact hof-
pim tenente infra idem regnu
sex solidos & octo denarios p-
plis natis in ?ris nris Hrbn Waft
Berwici & bund eiufdem Cales
& March eiufdem & omib}
infulis sub obedicia fira pplis
similt natis infra ducatos nros
vafton Aquitan & Norman tune
exiften & qui extunc erunt sub
obediencia fira exceptis & re-
feruatis Et si due vel tres huiuf-
modi pfone artifices vel plures
in num9o exceptis ^exceptis in
vna domo maneant vel aliquam
[Folio i2gb.] cam^am teneant qd quilt ea^dem
soluat dcum sublidiu sex solido^
& octo denario^. Et de quait p-
fona non indigefi non nata infra
regnu dinum ?ras jnfulas villas
bun3 & marcR fira ^dca seu sub
Greeting You must know that
whereas the communities of our
realm of England in our parlia-
ment held at Westminster on the
ninth day of November last past
with the advice and assent of the
lords spiritual and temporal in
the same our parliament by our
authority existing to the glory of
God and for the protection and
defence of our said realm granted
to us certain subsidies to be paid
and raised in the manner and
form following that is to say from
every handicraftsman not born
within our said realm of England
and not become indigent receiving
hospitality within the same king-
dom six shillings and eight pence
people born in our lands of Ire-
land Wales Berwick and its
bounds Calais and its marches and
in all islands under our obedience
and likewise people born within
our duchies of Aquitaine
and Normandy then being or who
hereafter shall be under our obe-
dience excepted and reserved
And if two or three persons
handicraftsmen of this kind or
more in number except as before
excepted shall abide in one house
or shall occupy a chamber that
every one of them shall pay the
said subsidy of six shillings and
eight pence And from every
person not indigent not born
within our realm dominion lands
islands towns bounds and marches
aforesaid or being under our
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
413
obedientia nra exifteri infra dcm
regnu firm hoipitiu non tenente
infra idem duos iblidos s9uien-
tib} huibondrie omino exceptis.
Et de quatt pfona non indigefi
exceptis aliquam domu pand-
oxatoriam voca? a Berehous
cuftodiente infra hoc regnu
firm pdcm viginti solidos. Et
similit9 de quoit Veniciano Jtalico
Januenli fflorentino Milenario
Catelino Alfctino & Lumbardo
m9catore existen Brocario seu
fcore vel attorn alicui eo^dum non
indigen exiften infra dcum regnu
firm & quoit alio m^catore ex-
taneo exta idem regnu firm
nato exceptis p9 excep? holptiu
tenente aut siorante infra dcum
regnu firm p spatiu triu menfum
quadraginta solidos dcis artificib3
& pandoxatorib} inde exceptis
& referuatis. Et de quoit Venici-
ano Jtalico Januenli fflorentino
Milenario Catellino Alfotino &
Lumbardo m9catore existefi vel
fcore & attorn cuiufit eo£. Et de
quoit alio m9catore extaneo nato
exta domini ducatus Jnfulas villas
bund: & Marcn ante diet9 non
indigen comorante infra dcm
regnu firm & non hoipitiu infra
idem tenente set soiorante in
aliquo loco sub obedientia nra
cum jlfatis m9catorib3 extaneis
brocariis vel fcorib} aut eo£ aliquo
obedience with n our said realm
not receiving hospitality within
the same two shillings servants
of husbandry altogether excepted
And from every person not in-
digent keeping any house of
entertainment called a beerhouse
within this our realm aforesaid
twenty shillings And similarly
from very merchant from Venice
Italy Genoa Florence Milan
Castile Albert and Lombardy
being a broker or dealer or any
attorney of the same not being
indigent within our said realm
And from every other foreign
merchant born without our same
kingdom except as above ex-
cepted receiving hospitality or
sojourning within our said realm
for the space of three months
forty shillings the said handi-
craftsmen and innkeepers ex-
cepted and reserved And from
every man that is a merchant
from Venice Italy Genoa Flo-
rence Milan Castile Albert and
Lombardy or the dealer and
attorney of each one of them
And from every other foreign
merchant born without the do-
minion duchies islands towns
bounds and marches aforesaid
not indigent staying within our
said realm and not receiving
hospitality within the same but
sojourning in some place under
our obedience with the afore-
said foreign merchants brokers
or dealers or any one of them
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
[Folio
viginti folidos dels fumis seper-
alib} not) soluend & leuand ad
feftum Pafche px futur. Et si ali-
quis Venicianus Jtalicus Januen-
fis fflorentinus Milenarius Catel-
linus Albtinus vei Lunvbdus ante-
die? vel alius extaneus natus exta
dominu ducatus Jnsulas villas
bund & marcn antedict? comorans
& exfpectans infra dcm regnu
rirm hofpiciu se cam9am non tenens
vt pdcm eft p fpatiu triu menfiu
recedat exta dcm regnu firm
anteqm dee sume & ea£ queit
not* sint plenarie contente &
solute modo vt pdici? qd tune
plbna & pfone & ea£ queit cum
quib} ipi fuint comorantes refi-
dentes & frequentantes dco nono
die Novenrbr onorabilis & on9ata
exiftat ac on^abiles & on^ate ex-
iftant cu & p quait suma£ ante-
dca^ not> p quamit huiufmodi
pfonam sic se diuten debit Nos
volentes de jlmnTis p vos plenius
c^tiorari ac de subiidiis antedcis
ad dcm feftum Pafche px futur
fideli? reiponderi necnon de fi-
delitate & circumfpect5e vris
plenius confidentes. Aflignauiu8
vos coniunctim & diuifim ad in-
querend & pfcrutand oinib} viis
modis & mediis quib} melius
scSitis aut po?itis in Com Nornt
tam infra li^btates qm exta de
twenty shillings The said several
sums to be paid to us and raised
by the feast of Easter next com-
ing And if any man from Venice
Italy Genoa Florence Milan Cas-
tile Albert or Lombardy aforesaid
or other foreigner born without
the dominion duchies islands
towns bounds and marches afore-
said dwelling and waiting within
our said realm for hospitality but
not having a chamber as is said
above for the space of three
months shall depart from our
said realm before the said sums
and every one of them be fully
discharged and paid to us in the
manner as is aforesaid that then
the person and persons and each
one of them with whom they had
been dwelling residing and asso-
ciating on the said ninth day of
November shall be charged and
liable with and for every one of
the sums aforesaid to us from
every person of this kind so de-
parting due We desiring to be
fully certified by you concerning
the premisses and to be faithfully
answered concerning the sub-
sidies beforesaid at the said
feast of Easter next coming and
also confiding fully in your fidelity
and circumspection have ap-
pointed you jointly and severally
to enquire and search out by all
ways manners and means that
you best know or can in the
county of Northampton as well
within the liberties as without
LIBER CUSTUMARUM,
415
omib} & singulis noib3 & pibnis
in dca conceffione specificata &
ad n5ia ea^dem pibna^ exceptis
jlexceptis cum huiufmodipecunia^
fummis not) p ipas ptextu concef-
lionis |>dcedebit in scriptis redigen
necnon ad inquilitoes inde diftincte
& apte fcas Thes & Baronib}
nris de sccio ad feftum pdcm sub
figillis vris & sigillis eo£ p quos
fee fiiint mittend et ad aliquos
viros fidedignos p collectoe &
leuatoe suma^ antedcta^ secdm
difcretoes v^as magis fufficientes
deputand et aflignand. Jta qd nofc
de sumis pecunia^ antedcis ad
feftum p9dcu in forma p9dca fi-
deli? refpondeat Thes & Barones
de Sccio nro p9dco de noib} illo^
quos ad hoc deputauitis cita fef-
tum p9dcm diftincte & apte
c9tificantes Et ideo vot> mandam3
qd omni dilone poftpolita circa
p9miffa diligen? intendatis & ea fac
& exequamini in forma p9dca.
Sani8 autem vniufis & singulis
vicecomitib} maiorib} Balliuis
Constabularijs ac Alijs fidelib}
& subditis nris quibuicumq} tarn
infra Irbtates qm ext* tenore
p9fentiu
concerning all and singular the
names and persons in the said
concession specified and to put
in writing the names of the same
persons except as before excepted
together with the sums of money
of this kind due to us from them
on pretext of the concession
aforesaid and also to send the
inquisitions made in this matter
distinctly and openly to our
treasurers and to our barons of
the exchequer by the feast afore-
said under your seals and the
seals of those by whom they
were made and to depute and
appoint some trustworthy men
quite sufficient for the collecting
and raising the sums aforesaid
according to your discretions So
that you faithfully answer to us
concerning the sums of money
aforesaid by the feast aforesaid
in form aforesaid distinctly and
clearly certifying the treasurers
and barons of our exchequer
aforesaid concerning the names
of those whom you have deputed
to this work before the feast
aforesaid And so we command
you putting aside all delay that
you give your diligent attention
about the premisses and do them
and complete them in form afore-
said But we strictly give it in
command to all and singular
sheriffs mayors bailiffs constables
and other our faithful men and
subjects whatsoever as well with-
in the liberties as without by the
[Folio i3ob.J
416 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
firmi? in mandatis qd vofc & cuilt tenor of these presents that they
vrm in executde p^miffo^ pareant be submissive obedient and at-
obediant & intendant put docet. tentive to you and to each one of
Jn cuius rei teftimoniu has Iras you in the execution of the
nras fieri fecim8 patentes. T me premisses as is fit In testimony
ipo apud Weftm xxj die Januarij whereof we have caused these
Anno r n ?tio our letters to be made patent
Witness myself at Westminster
the 2ist day of January in the 3rd
year of our reign
Skypton Skypton
HERE BEGINNETH THE STATUTE OF WYNCHESTRE 336
[i3TH EDWARD I STAT 2]
"CpOR allefo muche that day bi day Manflawhters theftis Robberies
more often are don thanne were wonte to ben . And ffelonies
ne moun nou}t ben atteynte by othes of Jorous that more wylle-
fullike sufferen ffelonyes done to ftraunge men paflen with owter
peyne . Than for to enditen the felouns And the myfdoers where-
thorowe agrete ptie arne ffolke of contre or atte lefte . Jf the
myfdoers arnn of other countre . her recytors arnn of that contre .
And fo done that thei it . for anne othe is nou}t nor draden to the
[Folio 1310.] iorours. Ne to the contre ther as the felonyes arn don whan to
reftitucion of harme peyne for to ne was nou}t ordeyned . for her
concelyng and her slownes
lorde the kyng for to abaten the drede of ffelouns soo
hath ordeyned a peyne in that cafe . So that for drede of the
peyne. more thanne for drede of her othe . To no man her by
forwarde not sparen nor none felonye concelen Comaundid hit is
that solemply be the crie made in alle Shires Hundreddes Chepynges
and ffeyres And in alle suche othir ftedis. Ther als solempne aflemble
of folke fhall ben Soo that no man by rekkelefchipe hym may
excufen . That euy contre so be kepte that anon ryght aftur
Robberies ar felonyes done . Be made freffh sute from toun to
toun . ffrom fraunchife to fraunchife . And enqueftes alfo be done
if myfter be in tounes . Bi hym that is foueyn of the toun And
336 This transcript is very different from the Act, as printed in the Statutes at
Large, being here much abbreviated.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 417
aftur in hundredes and in fraunchifes . and Shires .And othir while
in two or in thre or in ffoure shires . Soo that the myfdoers moun
ben ou taken . And sufferen in wife And if the contre of fuche man9 [Folio i3ib.]
myfdoers ne anfwere not . The peyne fhall be iiche in euy contre .
that is for feyne . ffolke dwellyng in centres (hall enfweren of
roberies and of harmes done soo that in alle the hundred ther as
the Roberie fhalle be done . With the ffraunchyfes that arnne
within the pvrfute of the same hundred sholn anfweren of the
Robberie that is done . And if the Robberie be done in deptyng of
hundred so shohi anfweren bothe hundred w* her ffraunchifes that
with Jnne the p9fentes ben .And no longer terme (hall haue the
contre aftur the Robberie or the felonie done . But halfe a yere •
With Jnne the which it be hoveth hem to make gree of the Robberie
and of the myfdoyng And that thei anfweren of the bodies of the
myfdoers . And for allfo muche that the kyng wyllnott that folke ben
fodeynly made poeer . of this peyne that semeth harde to fome folke .
Graunteft that hit ne be anon Right over Runnen . But taketh the tFolio
peyne in refpite tille the Efterne next comyng . Andwith in fuche
aterme fhall the kyng sende how the contre fhall beren hem And
ftynten of syche Robberies and felonies . Aftur whiche terme alle be
they c'^teyne that euy 3ere fhall renne in this peyne gen9ally . That
is for to feyne ffolke in Countre dwellyng fhall anfweren of Rob-
beryes and felonies done in her Countre . The kyng hath
comaundid that in grete tounes that arnn clofed with walles . That
the yates ben shitte from the fonne goyng down till the sonne
Ryfyng And that no man herberow hym in subbarbes . but if it be
daye . Nor on daie but the hofte wyll for hym Anfweren . And the
baillif} of tounes ilke bi hym felue euy woke or atte the lefte euy
guyn}eyn do maken enqueftes . of men herberowed in subbarbes or
in the foreyn chef of tounes . And if thei fynden any herberger
that Reffeyneth folke or herborowe folke Ageyne the peas . so to do
the bailliffis Rightfulneffe And from hens forwarde is comaundid [Folio
that wachyng on nyghtes to be os thei were wonte be fore
tyme . That is for to feyne . from hooly thorfdaye tille michelmafTe
in e3y Citee with . vj . men at e3y 3ate . And in euy Burgh by
xij men . And in e3y hole toun by vj men or bi foure Aftur the
noumbr of folke that dwellen and make the wache comunly all
the nyghte . ffrom the sonne goyng doun tille the Ryfyng vpon
the morowe And if any ftraunge man pafle by hem . Be he Arref-
ted tille on the morowe . And if thanne noo suffpecioun be founde
DD
418 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of hym that is attached . Goo he quyte . And if me fynde fuf-
pecious be he delyued to the Sherrefe anon Right . And with
owten daunger he hym Reffeyne and wifely him kepe till he in
due man^e be delyued . And he ne fuffur not to ben arrefted . Be
honthes rered vpon hem . And tho that arn kepers of the toun
[Folio i33a.] Hem sewen with alle the toun and with neyghbores of tounes .
with owte hes from toun to toun tille he be taken and
delyued to the Shirrue os it is feide be forne . And for the
arreftyng of suche ftraunge folke no man ne be enchefoned
Comaundid hit is allfo that the hye weyes of tounes chepyngf
ben from hens forwarde enlarged ther os it is wode hegges
bufkes or dikes so that ther be no podell vnderwode or buflces
Ther als men moun darken to yvell don nexte the weye by .
CC fete and CC fete on that other halfe . Soo that this ftatute
neyther be abated ne alarged . tille that it be clere above and by
nethe . And if bi defaute of the lorde be that he wyll nott . podell
vnder wode . ne buikes do doun in the forme as it is be forfeide
. And if Roberes ben done . soo anfwere the lorde . And if ther
murtheryng be done be the lorde areymed at the kynges wylle
And if the lorde ne suffifeth not to don down vndurwode so
[Folio i33b.] mail the cuntre hym helpyn to done it . And the kyng will that
in his demeyne londes and wodes with Jnne foreft and with
owten that weyes ben enlarged os it is be forefeide . And if
parke be nye the hye weye so comaundeth that the lorde of the
parke make laffe his parke till he haue the brede of CC . fete .
of wey os it is be forefeide. Or that he make such adike walle
or hegge . That myfdoers ne moun paffen nor comen . Jt is
ordeyned alfo that euy man haue in his houfe Armure for to
kepe the peas after the olde affife That is for to feyne . that euy
man by twixe xv . wyntur and . Ix . ben aiTifed and fett and sworne
aftur the quantite of her londes and of her Catell . That is for
to seyne at xv ii of land and at Catell of xl marke haburioun
hatte of Jren spere and horfe and knyfe at x pounde of lande .
and at Catell xxu marke harburioun salett swerd and knyfe .
[Folio i34a.] And who laffe hath than . xls of londe be thei sworne at Gyfar-
nyes . knyfs and other small Armur and wepenes at xls of lande
and more tille hit come tille an Cs bowes Arowes Swyrdes and
knyfs And whos laffe hath of Catell than . x . marke Swirde knyfe
and other smale wepenes . And all other that may haven bowes
and arowes oute of the forefte . And with Jnne bowes and speris
b
me
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 419
And that sight of wepenes be made twife in the 3ere . And in e3y
ffraunchife hundred be chofen two Conftables to make the syght
of wepouns And the forfeide Conftables pfenten before the Juftices
affigned whan thei fholn comen into centre The defautes that thei
haue founden of wepenes slownes of oute of tounes ot weyes &
pfentmentf Allfo of folke that herborouen ftraunge men in tounes
of vpland for which thei wylnot anfweren And the Juftices Affigned
in euy pliament rep9fenten to the kyng and the kyng ther vpon
shall make amendis .And welle oue fee from hens forwarde Sherreues
and baillifs with Jnne fraunchifes and with owten more and
laffe .That bailli in fforefterie hauen in fee or in other man9e that thei
sewen and folowen the cry with cuntre and aftur that thei arnn that
thei hauen hors and armur therto made . And if ther be any that
willnot . be the defautes prefented bi the Conftables to the Juftices
affigned And aftur that by hem the kynge os it is be forefeide .
And the kyng comaundeth and defendith . That ffeyre nor chepyng
from henfe forwarde not be holden in Chirche3erdis for the wor-
Ihipe and the honoure of god and of holychirche . Youen at ,
... . Hoc fcript fu
Wyncheftr the viij daie of Septenrbr 337 the 3ere of the kyng gript f*T
Edward . xiijth &c CoTdwdis
THE CHATRE OF THE FFRAUNCHISE OF NORTHAMPTON.339
[CHARTER OF 2yTH EDWARD I.]
IpDWARD THOROW THE GRACE OF God kyng of Englond and [Folio i
lord of Jrelonde . and Duke of Acquitayne to Arfchebyflhoppis
Biflhopis . Abbotis Priours Erles . Baronns . Juftices Shirreues Reues
Myniftres and Baillifs and to his trewe gretith well . We haue
oufeyn the Chartur whiche of noble memorie and mynde . Sir . H .
som tyme kyng of Englond oure ffadir made to the Burgeis of Nor-
hampton vpon theife wordes 34° [HJenry thorou3 the grace of god
kyng of Engelond lorde of Jrelond Duke of Normandye and of
Acquitayne Erie of Andag to Archebiflhoppis Biflhopis Abbotis
Priours Erles Barons . Juftices . Shirreues Reues Miniftres and to
all Baillifs and to his trewe sent gretyng . Wite ye vs haue graunted
337 This statute was made the 8th October, 1285, the date inserted here is
incorrect.
338 This George Coldwell was, no doubt, the town clerk. He is hereinafter
mentioned on page 430.
339 This charter, confirming the charters of nth and 4ist Henry III,, is hereinbefore
printed in English on page 56.
340 Charter of nth Henry III.
DD 2
420 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and with this cure p9fent chart1 haue confermed . To our Burgeis
of Norht that none of hem may emplede oute of the wallis of the
Burgh of Norhampton . of any plee . oute take the plees of owte
holdynges . oute take Moneo's and our Miniftres . Wee hau J
[Folio i3sb.] graunted alfo te hem Acquytyng of Murdre with Jnne the Burgh
and in portefoken . And that non of hem make bataile oii ageyn
another . And that of tho plees to the Croune longyng . hem mown
thei disrefouner aftur the cuftume and vfage of the Cyti3ens of the
Cite of london . And that thei w* Jnne the walles of the burgh no
man take Jn nor herborowe by ftrenght ne by delyuaunce of the
kynges marefihall . And that all the burgeis of Norht ben quyte of
Tolle and of laftage by all Engelonde and the havenes of the See .
And that no man of anrVyment of catell be aiuged but aftur the
lawe which hauen our Citi3eyns of london in tyme of H . kyng our
Ayel . And that in that Burgh in non plee be myfkennyng . And
that an hufteng only in the weke be holden . And that they hauen
Rightfully her londes her holdynges her weddes . and all her dettis .
who fo hem owen . And that of her landes and holdyngf with Jnne
the Burgn ben Right to hem be Holden Aftur the vfages of the
. Burgh .And of alle her dettis that lent ben at Nornt . And of
[Foho 1363.]
weddis ther made and leide plees at Nornt be thei holden . And if
ther be any in all Engelond Tolle or custome of ]?e men of Nornt
had taken . sithen that he of Right had defayled . The Reue or the
Baillifs of Norht withernome ther offen at Nornt fhall taken .
Therwith alfo to amendyng of that ilke Burgh to hem we hau
graunted . That thei ben quyte of Brudtoll and of Gyldwit} and of
3eref3eue . and of Scotage . So that the Reue of Norht or any other
Bailif not make non Scotage theife be fore named Cuftumes to hem
we hau graunten . And all other ffraunchifes and ffree cuftumes .
which hadden cure Citi3enes of london whan thei hem hadden beft
and moft freeft in tyme of forfeide H . kyng cure aiell . aftur the
fredomes of london and the lawes of the Burgh of Norht . And
therfor we willen & ftedfaftly c5maunden that thei and her heyres
alle theife thynges by heritage hauen and holden of vs and of oure
heires 3eldyng by yere . c . xxli in noumbr of the toun of Norht with
all the appurtenauns at oure Chekker in the terme of Seint Michell
by the hand of the Reue of Norht . and the Burgeis of the toun of
Norht . Sholn maken the Reue wrhom thei wyllen of hem selue by
3ere That be couenable to vs and to hem in this maner That is for
feyne that the forfeid Burgeis of Norht by the comonn counfeile of
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 421
the fame tounlliippe sholn Chofen tweyne of the moft lawfull and
wifeft Burgeis of her toun And thei fholn p9fenten hem by her patent
letters to oure chefe Juftice at Weftm that well and trewly mall
kepen the puofterie of Norht . And ne be thei remued . Als longe as
thei hem in her baillis hadden born . But bi the comun counfeile of
her tounmipe . We wyllyn allb that in the fame Burgh of Norht by
the comun confeile of the fame toun be chofen foure of the moft
lawfull and wifeft men of the Burgh to kepe the plees of oure
Coronne . And other thyngf that to vs longen in the fame Burgfe . ^Folio ^
And for to seen that the Reves of the fame Burgh Rightwifly and
truely treten And drawen als well the pore as the riche As the
Chartor of Sir John the kyng our fadir which theroffen they hauen
witneilith Refonnably Theife wittneffes wormipfull faders Joffelyn
Bathon R Sa^ bifmoppes and other . }ouen bi the hond of wortfhip-
full fadir . R Ciceftr biffhopp our Chaunceler the yere of our Reigne
elleueneth
342 ANOTHER CHARTUR341
E hauen alfo oufeyn another Chartor the which
the forfeid oure fadyr alfo made to the forfeid
Burgeis in Theife wordes Henry thorough the
grace of god kyng of Engelond . lorde of Jrelond
. Duke of Normandy . Acquytayne and Erie
of Andeg to Erchebifmoppis Biflhoppes . Abbotis
'P'ours Erls Baronns . Juftices Shirreues Reues
Myniftres and all baillifs and his trewe sent gretyng . Wite 36
vs han graunted and with this our p^fent Charto1 hau confermed
to our burgeis of Norht . That thei and the heyres of hem for eu
hauen pleyn Returne of alle oure Writtis Als well of somonis of rFolio ,37b.]
oure Chekker os of other The forfeid Burgh and the ffraun-
chife of that towchyng . And that thei anfweren by her handes
at oure Chekker of allman9 dettis somonns and afkynges hem
towchyng . So that if any fhirreue or other baillif or our Miniftr
from hens forwarde entre that BurgR . to any diftrefies somonns or
othir thynges to done . That longeth to her office but in defaute of
hem or of her heyres And that thei hauen Jnfangenthef and that non of
hem emplede oute of the Walles of f* burgn but of foreyn holdynges .
341 Charter of 4ist Henry III.
34i David Owen was, no doubt, the town clerk.
422 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Or allfb of any trefpas made in the lame burgh . But vpon thyng
cure Right and cure pfone towchyng And that the forfeide burgh
ne ben not atteynte by any foreynes vpon any appeles Rightfulles
Wronges . trefpas . blames . chalenges or afkynges putte to hem . or
fliulde ben putte . but only by her owne comburgeis . but of sum
thyng touching the c5mun of the fame Burgh . And thanne in
that Cafe be thei ladde aftur her ffraunchifes approved and tille
[Folio i38a.] this day vfede . And that no marchaunt in tyme of ffeyres of the
fame Burgh be herborowed in the fame burgh with his mar-
chaundife But of the leve and the wylle of the bailliffs of the
fame Burgh . So as hit fholde be done and was wonte in tyme
of oure pdeceffours kynges of Engelond And that thei moun dif-
trelfe maken with Jnne the forfeide Burgh for her dettis So os
teftat hiderto hath be done and was wonte . We haue grauntid to hem
that if any of hem Where fom eu in our Realme teftat or vn-
teftat dyen The heyres of hem the godis of hem dede fully may
hauen als fer os her heires Refonably may fhewen Tho godis to
ben of the forfeide dede . And that thei nor her godis ben not
Arrefted Any where ellis in oure Realme Nor that tho godis not
lefeyn . for any trefpas of her feruauntis . And that thei may vfen
the ffredomes be fore named conteyned in this our Chart or. whan
fo eu thei wyllyn . All thow som tyme to hem was not soo We
haue grauntid to hem alfo that thei and her heyres haue alle
the ffredomes to hem be fore to grauntid by oure chartor and bi
[Folio i38b.] the chartours of our jldeceflburs kynges of Engelond . So as to
hem Refonnably }it hedertowarde han vied . And therfore we
willen and ftedfallly we comaunden for vs and for oure heires
.That the forfeid burgeis and her heyres for eue hauen the
forfeide ffraunchifes . And we defenden upon oure forfeytur that no
man hem ageynes this our graunte in anythyng diftroble or
make adrad . Theyfe wittneffes Gefferey of leyum and William
of Valenc oure brethern and othir . 3ouen by oure hande at
Weftm the xxviij day of Januar Jn the yere of our Reigne xlj11 We
for fothe the forfeide grauntes hanne fermed and ftable and worthi
hem for vs and for our heyres Jn allfo moche as in vs is to the
forfeid burgeis And to her heires and to other her succeflburs
Burgeis of the fame toun for eu more wee haue graunten and
confermyn Alfo the forfeide Charters Refonnably witneffen . We
haue graunted alfo for vs and for oure heyres to the forfeid Burgeis
that thei & heires and her Succeffours eiiy 3ere for eumore At
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 423
the feft of Seynt Michaell monn chofen a Mayre and two Bailliff3 [FoUo ,39a
of hem seluen . And hym that thei hauen to be maire jkenten at
our chekker with Jnne the Octaues of the forfeid ffefl . Which
that ther lhall maken his othe of tho thyngf that to the office of
mayrialte longen . Trewly to done execucion whiche maire and
Baillifs alle the plees of the ffraimchife of the forfeide toun
towchyng sholn holden and haunten so as by the baillifs of the
fame toun in tymes that arnn patted was wonte to be done . Theife
wittneffes worfhipfull fadres A Dunolm Wynton and Sa£ biffhoppis .
Henry Lacy Erie of Lyncoln and other . youen by oure honde at
Caunturbury the xxvij" of maij the 3ere of Reigne Seuen and
twenty.
343 [Tjruely We hauyng forfeide grauntes in oure mynde pleafed dark of
and writyng pleafid foo to be Admitted for vs & oure heyres . As rhe markett
myche as in vs is We graunte to the forfeide Burgefles and theire
heyres . And other sucelfours to theym burgeffe} and their heyres
ppetually to Abyde . We nat oonly graunte hit But Allfo Anctecteucly
We conferme hit lyke maner As the forfaide jlfented confermyd [Folio isg
Chartours bere wittnes . furthermore we wyllyng hafe graunted to
the forfeide Burgeffes . Amore bountyvous grace in this partie .
And Allfo hath confermyd hit with this oure flfent Chartoure . That
is to fey though hit bee that the feide Burgeffis or any of theire
forfeid burgeffes in Any Cafe happenyng have nat fully vfeed oon or
any of the forfeide ffraunches or graces or lyfotees grauntid be
ony of oure noble pgenitours to this tyme or any quietancf . Nott
withftondyng We will that the forfeide Burgeffes and theire heyres
and other for to come succeffours Burgeifes of the feide town of
Norhampton fchall En Joye & vie theire lyftties and quietanc Affore
graunted in oon and all withowte ony impedyment of vs or of oure
heyres Juftic Efchetoures Shreviff^ or other bailliff} or ony other of
oure Officiers what someu thei bee . And more ovir we will make
more larger knowlech vnto the forfeide town in what ffavoure we
haue theym burgeifes and their heyres and ther succelfours . And
what large} lyfoties we haue grauntid theym in this our j}fent
Chartour with oure greate confirmacion for vs and our heyres And
this we wylle & graunte and conferme that they have very [Foiio
348 This portion is taken from the charter of 8th Richard II., although the com-
mencement of that charter is not given.
424 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
knowlech of all plees . And of all man9 of Affifes And of all other
plees that happen or befall within the forfeide town of Norhampton
And the Subbarbis of the feide town of Norhampton . All theife
plees And Affifes we graunte & conferme to be holden and pleted
Affore the Mayre and Bailing . of the feide town for that tyme
beyng in the Gyldehalle of the forfeide toun ppetuelly to be contynued .
We will Allfo that the maire of the feide toun for the tyme beyng .
have in Jpetuall the kepyng in the feide toun and Subbarbis of the
fame toun of Affife of brede wyne and Ale and Allfo correccion
& punnyffhment of the fame . Allfo with ffynes and Amercyamentis
that may be Reifed therof to turne to the profett and vie of the
Comynalte of the toun and the Subbarbis of the fame toun. Allfo
we graunte to the maire for the tyme beyng . Acyces and kepyng of
Affices and oufight of mefures weightes in the toun And in the
Subbarbis Afforfeide of Norhampton . Afwell in oure |1 fence As in
oure Abfence And of oure heyres . Allfo wee graunte that the maire
for the tyme beyng . That he fee and duely examyne And preve all
mefures and weightes . And thoo that he fees and proves ffallfe to
[Folio i4ob.] burne theym dampne and diftroye them And to ordeygne true and
seall & marke lawfull mefures and weyghtes Accordyng to oure
lawes . And not oonly this we graunte And gyffe ffull power that the
mayre for the tyme beyng lefully and rightwiily Correcte & punyflhe
thoffendours and brekers of oure lawfull ordeyned mefures and
weightes . We graunte and licence the meyre thus to doo As well
in oure jpfence As in our Abfence or ony of oure heires As often as
nede is so to doo . And as hit femyth the mayre for the tyme beyng
Refonably soo to Correcte And punnyffhe . Allfo we graunte &
conferme to the Mayre for the tyme beyng to hafe power ppetually
in all this fforfettis . Affore Reherfed And the correccion s as well in
our jlfence As in our Abfence . And nott oonly thoo Affore Reherfid
but Allfo we graunte theym full power to serche Jnquire And to
knowe of All fforftallers and Regraters of oure mercatis And ffeftured
Shamellis ffleffhis Rotyn . And vnlawful ffyfihes And vicious vitaille
not Accordyng to oure lawes nor the weall of oure liege people for
theire bodyly profet within the toun and Subbarbis of the feide town
of Norhampton . We confideryng graunte to the maire for the tyme
beyng full power to correcte punyfihe And governe All theife pmyfed
[Folio i4ia.] offenfis And for too Reife ffynes with fforfettis & Am^cyAmentis
And other vailes that may be Reifed of the feid offenfis to tovrne to
the vayle of the feid Comynalte And Subbarbis of the feid town of
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 425
Norhampton . Allfo We graunte and gyffe full power to the maire
for the tyme beyng Too fforbidde . And Allfo we fforbidde chargith
And alllb c5maunde that the Clerke of the Merket nor non
other of oure officers or of oure heires Jn no maner of wife in-
tromytte hym to hafe Adoo with ony Cavfe or mater that
parteynyth or longith too Correccions of Any pmyfed offenfis
or ffawtis of Mefures Weightes . Affifes or fforfettis of vitaille
wyne or Ale ffleffhe or ffyffhe or ony thyng that pteynyth to the
office of the Clerke of the Merket But that the Maire for the tyme
being hafe the ffull power in his owne execucyon This wittneffith
worlhipffull ffaders .William Tharlbifihope of Caunterbury Primate
of England
TEMPE JOHIS SAXBY MAIORIS 'Fo!io
[IN THE TIME OF JOHN SAXBY844 MAYOR.]
Md that at a Councell holden in the Guyhald of the Toun of
Norhampton the Mondaie [4th December, 1531] next af? the
ffeaft of Seint Andrew Thappoftell in the xxiijth yere of the
Reigne of kyng Henry the eight BY THASSENT & concent of
John Saxby maior of the feid toun of Norhampton Thorns Chipfey
Wiftm Bond Richard Syxfon Richard Bowrs John Bugby & John
Motte late maiors of the fame ffor many & dime conlideracons
mifbehavyngf & lewde demeanours of Thorns Wodward late of
NorhRmpton aforfeid mcer & Richard Johnfon of the same nicer it is
there ffully de?myned condecendid and agrede by the feid Councell
that the feide Wodeward & Johnfon is & for e3 lhalbe Dyfmyffid &
difcharged excludid & put out of the Court & Councell of the feid
toun of Norhampton & neu to be fomoned ne takyn for any of the ^ [FoIio I42a>1
Company of the xxiiij" Comburgefies of the fame toun Alfo that
the feid Wodward & Johnfon lhalle neu haue place ne feit w*in
the Court of the fame toun where as other the xxiiij11 Combur-
genfes do alweife fitt that [is to fey w'in the barris comynly
callid the Chequer of the feid Court FFERTERMOR it is conde-
cendid and hooly agrede by the feid Councell that if any of
the forfeid late maiors wich affore this tyme have byn
344 John Saxby, or Saxbee, was mayor of the town in 1509-10, 1520-1, and
1532-3.
345 The words : — " William Hampton the Company of the Comburges " are
written in a later hand, on the top of the page.
426 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
maiors of the feid toun or that hereaf? fhalbe maiors of the
fame So at eny tyme hereaf? Admytt take Sdmon or calle the
feid wodward & Johnfon or either of theym to be of the feid
Court or Councell w*out that it be by thaifent & concent of the
maior for the tyme beyng & all other his brethren wiche haue
byn maiors of the fame That then who fo eu he be that fo
offendith doth the contrarie unto this or jlient acte & dede ftialle
lofe the fome of tene pound? ft9lingf halfe therof to be forfett to the
[Folio i42b.] mai0' for the tyme beyng & the other halff to the Chamber of
the feid toun w'out any fauor of Redempcon theym to be Ihewid
MOREOU9 it is alfo agrede & ffully de?myned that if the feid
Wodward & Johnfon or any of theym pfume or take opon
theym in eny tyme to come to the contrarie of this pfent or
acte & dede that then thei or any of theym fhalle lofe & paie
ffyve pound? ft9lyng halfe therof to the maior for the tyme beyng &
the other halfe to the chamber afforfeid AND that this or jlfent
acte & dede to be recorded & regeftrid in the Records of or feid
court & there emongs al other Record? to remayne for eu Jn
witnefle wherof J the forfeid John Saxby maior w* al other my
brethern be fore named to this jlfent o* deds we haue fett or
Names w* or owen hand? the daie & yer aboufeid
John Saxby Maior
Thorns Shippfey Wyftm Bond
Richard Bowyes x Richard Dyxfon
John Bucky n
D John Motte
TEMPE RICI JOHNSON MAIOR &c
[Folio i4ja.,
[IN THE TIME OF RlCHARD JOHNSON 346 MAYOR &C]
347 Md that a counfell holden in the Guyhald of the toun of
Norhampton the xxj daie of Nouembr [1544] in the xxxvj yer of
the reigne of or foueigne lord Henry the eight by the grace
of God of england france & Jrland kyng Deffender of the feithe
& in erthe the fup9me hed of the Churche of England & Jer-
land By the affent & concent of Richard Johnfon maier of the
feid toun John Saxby Thorns Shipley Laurence Manley John
346 Richard Johnson was mayor of the town in 1545-6.
347 As much of this ordinance as is contained on this folio (1433) has been
cancelled in the Liber.
LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 427
Motte Laurence Waffhyngton Richard Wilkinfon Nicholas Band
Willm Walgier Henry Neile John Brightmen John Bowers Antony
Brian & Criftofer Barnar maiers of the feide toun of Norfet for
many mif behauyngf lewid Demeaneurs pverfe actions and dms
other vrgent caufes confiderations her teftified practifid & comyttid
fterid & done as well within the feide toun of Norhmpton os
wthout to the great detryment p9iudice fclaunder & hurt aswel of [Foiu> i43b.]
the fame toun & lifoties of the fame as alfo to the gret damage
hurt vexacon & troble of many Jnhabitants of the fame toun &
other the kynges fubiects diufe fondry waies by Wiftm Bugby of
Norhmpton tann9 John Horpole of the fame tann9 & Wiftm Old-
ham of the fame corior Jtt is therfor fully determyned condi-
cendid & agreed by hole aflent and concent of the feide maior &
other before named his brethern late maiors of the feid toun
beyng congregate to gether in Councell in the feid Guyhald the
daie & yere aboue writyn that from henfforthe the feid Wiftm
Bugby John Horpole Wiftm Oldam and euy of theym be is &
fhalbe dyfmyffid difchargid excludid & derly putt out bothe of this
court & councell of the feid toun of Norht and nether to be
fommyd reputid acceptid or taken ineny man9 of place afiemble
or going for eny of the company of xxiiij^ comburgeiles of the
feid toun or of the xlviij" of the fame and alfo that they & euy of
theym fhall neu haue eny place or feet w*in the feid toun or
court as other of the Nomber of xxiiij" or xlviiju hath alweife had
or hathe byn accuftomed to haue But that they & euy of theym
be and fhalbe from henfforthe Reputed accepted & takyn in lyke
man9 as though they had neu borne office w'in the feide toun
or callid to eny Councellor elleccioun as other of the feid
xxiiij11 or xlviiju ought to be reputid fomoned callid accept &
takyn w'in the feid toun And fferthermor that the feid Wiftm
Bugby John Horpolle and Wiftm Oldam ne any of theym
fhall from henfforthe p9vily or apertly refort repaire or come
to the feid Ric Johnfon now Maior or eny his succelfours to
gyve councell either by word or writyng or comenly to frequent &
haunt the Company of the feide Ric Johnfon now maior or eny of
his Succelfors or to take opon theym or eny of theym or to
p9fume to the contrarie of eny article claufe act thyng or thyngf
before prifid dymylTed forbyden & excepted fferthermor it is alfo
agreede & de?myned by the feid Ric Johnson & his brethern before
named by one hole aflent & concent of theym al in this p9fent
428 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
councell afiemblid that if the feid Wiftm Bugby John Horpoll &
Wiftm Oldam or eny of theym from henfforthe p9fume attempt or
take opone them or any of theym to the contrarie of eny article claufe
act or thyng beforemencioned det9myned & agreed ageynft theym
or eny of theym that then they & eny of theym (hall Jncurre forfeit
lofe & paie for euy offence by them or eny of theym comitted &
don to the contrarie of eny article or claufe comprifed in this
p9fent acte of counfeill of the feid toun of Norftt of the behalfe of
[Folio i44b.] the feid Wiftm Bugby John Horpoll and Wiilm Oldam c5cluded
det9myned and agreed as is afforfeid fyve poundf It9lyng Wherof
the one moyte or halfendeth to be the maior of the feid toun
for the tyme beyng & other half to the Chamber of the feid toun to
be emploied to the repaieryng of the pavyment of the same toun
moreou9 it is condecendid & fully agreede by the feid councell
w* one hoole aifent & concent that if any of the forfeid maiors or
their Succeffors do at eny tyme heraft9 receyve admytt fomon call
or take the feid Wiiim Bugby John Horpelle and Wiiim Oldam or
eny of theym to be of the feid court counfell or nombre of xxiiijtj or
xlviiju or do pmyt repute or take theym as eny of the feid nombre
in any man9 of affembly or goyng w'out it be by the hole alfent
& confent of the maior for the tyme beyng and al his brethern that
haue byn maio's by like councell atfemblid as afforefeid That then
the feid maior & his brethren & ev9y of theym that do attempt
to do contrarye to this p9fent act before de?myned fliall jncurre
lofe forfeit & paie the fome of tenne poundf fiPlyng the one half
therof to be to the kyngf maiefty or fou9eigne lord his heire} &
[Folio 1453.] fucceffours and the other half therof to the Cfcmber of the feid
toun towards the pavimentf of the fame as is afforfeid and that this
p9fent act fhalbe Recorded and Regeftrid in the Recordf of the feid
toun of Norhmpton and ther emongf al other Recordf of the feid
toun to Remayne for eu9 Jn witneife wherof the Richard Johnfon
Maior & al other his brethern before named to this p9fent act haue
put to their Sigmanuell the daie & yer abouefeid
John winfilld of to Cockermonthe in Northuberland xl days in temp
[Folio i4sb.] Jnquiratur p Dno Rege fi Let it be enquired for our
Thomas Hartiftiorne Jun de Norht Lord the King if Thomas Har-
in Com Norht Thomas Laurence tishorne junior of Northampton
in the county of Northampton
Thomas Laurence of Northamp-
LIBER CUSTUMARUM.
429
de Northampton in Comitatu
Norftt bocher Wiftms Thomibn
de eadm in eodm com bocher et
Ricus Myryell de eadm in eodm
com bocher et Ricus Hudfon de
eadm in eodm Gardyner fecundo
die ffebruarij anno fr Henrici fep-
timitertiodecimovi & armisvideit
gladijs baculis & cultellis in Tho-
mam Highm apud Norntp9dict in
com p9dic? infultm fecerunt & ipm
Thomam Higham ad tune & iftm
verbauerunt vulnerauerunt et
male tractauerunt Jta qd de vita
fua deipabat contra pacem dci
dm Regis &c
Thomas Hupton
Ad colloqum gen^ale ten? in
Guyhald die Ven9is px poft ffm
Sci Micnis Arcfii Anno fr Henrici
feptimj ix° p JoRem Solle Maior
& conliim fuu et totas Cditas eiuf-
dem ville uni Affenfu & concenfu
ordinauerunt in forma fequent
videit vt patet in ligua ma?na
ton in the county of Northampton
butcher William Thomson of the
same in the same county butcher
and Richard Myryell of the same
in the same county butcher and
Richard Hudson of the same in
the same county gardener on
the 2nd day of February [1498]
in the I3th year of the reign of
King Henry the yth with force
and arms that is to say with
swords sticks and knives made
an assault upon Thomas Higham
at Northampton aforesaid in the
county aforesaid and him Thomas
Higham then and there beat
wounded and ill-treated so that
he despaired of his life contrary
to the peace of the said Lord the
King &c
At a general conference held
in the Guildhall on Friday [4th
October, 1493] next after the
feast of S Michael the Arch-
angel in the ninth year of the
reign of King Henry the yth by
John Solle mayor and his council
and the whole community of the
same town with unanimous assent
and consent they ordained in
form following that is to say as
appears in the mother tongue
Be hit pvidid Alwey that yf eny bocher of the toun of Norftt
fell eny maner of hide or hydes but Allonly within the p9cyncte
of the Bochery of the feide tonn . And he that doth the contrary
w* due profe therof made by Wyttnefle That pfone or pfones that
foo offendyth and trefpafith to paye to the meire & ChaunVbr for
430 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
the tyme beyng iijs iiijd And Amercyment to the bailiff} of xijd
for euy hyde or hydes loo folde w*oute the p9cyncte of the forfeid
bochery this Acte and ftatue may ftonde for Alawe eSmore for to
Abyde &c
[Folios i46a, i46b, and i4ya are blank, on folio i4yb is
written : — ]
George Colewell 348
Anno Domini 1611
Tobie Colewell349 towne clerke
in the yeare of our lord god
1621
John Cuifford
John Chuifford
Beniermin Colewell
is my name with my penne
John Chuifford
[END OF LIBER CUSTUMARUM.]
348 George Coldwell, or Colewell, evidently the town clerk, is hereinbefore
mentioned on page 419.
349 Tobias Coldwell, or Colewell, is mentioned as the town clerk in the letters
patent of l6th James I., hereinbefore printed on page 133.
This initial M is a reproduction of that on the charter of ist and 2nd Philip and
Mary, hereinbefore printed on page 118.
of
c, &oc<*f, <mfc (private
of (parftatneni refafing
fo f^e
of
EE
435
9*
vi.
An Act for Paving and Repairing certain Highways and
Streets within the Town of Northampton.
This statute is hereinbefore mentioned on page 75, and hereinbefore printed in
Norman-French on page 283, and in English on page 287.
4*
1489.
An Act for regulating the election of the Mayor and the
Eight and Forty.
This statute is hereinbefore printed on page 101.
27*
vni. 1. 1.
1535-
An Acte for repairing and amending of the townes of
Gloucester, Nothingham, Northampton and other.
This act recited that certain towns, of which Northampton was one, then were
and for a long time had been, in great ruin and decay, with many void grounds.
Wherefore it pleased the King with the assent of the lords and commons to enact
that if the owners of any decayed houses in these towns, did not rebuild and
amend the same, within three years next after public proclamation of this act had
been made by the mayor, it should be lawful for the chief lord of whom the same
houses were held, to take the same absolutely on condition that he rebuilt and
amended the same within three years; and if the lord did not rebuild and amend
the same within three years, it should be lawful for the mayor and burgesses or
the sheriff to take the same absolutely, on condition that they rebuilt and amended
the same within three years; and if the mayor and burgesses or sheriff did not
rebuild and amend the same within three years, it should be lawful for the
first owner to take possession of the same without condition. There is a saving
clause granting time for persons under age or in prison.
EE 2
436 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
27* Cljaries ii.
i3TH OCTOBER, 1675.
An Act for the better and more eafie Rebuilding the Town
of Northampton.
This act recited that the greatest part of the town of Northampton had been
burnt down by a sudden and dreadful fire, which had happened in September then
last past. Wherefore it was enacted that the judges of assize for the county
of Northampton, and other the justices of the courts of King's Bench and
common pleas, the barons of the coif of the exchequer for the time being,
the justices of peace for the said county for the time being, the mayor of the town
of Northampton for the time being, and Sir John Holman, baronet, Sir Edmund
Bray, knight, Thomas Willughby, James Stedman, Robert Hefslerige, Thomas
Andrews, Thomas Ward, Charles Fleetwood, Daniel Danvers, Salathiel Lovell
and William Kimbold, esquires, or five, or more of them sitting at the
Guildhall, or some other place in Northampton, should constitute a court of
record, to determine all differences which should arise between landlords and
occupiers of houses in the town, touching the rebuilding of the same, rent due, or
other matters, with power to enlarge or curtail the estates in the said premises. And
with power to appoint rules for rebuilding the town. And generally to do all things
necessary, under the circumstances. And it was further enacted that justices of
the peace of the county who might reside in the town might exercise their office
as justices within the town. And that all justices of the peace of the County might
at the times of assizes and sessions of the peace for the county, exercise
their office as justices within the town. And further that any person who within
seven years should build a house of the value of ^300, should have liberty to
exercise any trade in the town, as a freeman could do.
This was the only act passed during this session of Parliament.
(Sfcorg* ii. t.
1742.
An Act for granting an Aid to His Majesty by a Land Tax
to be raifed in Great Britain, for the Service of the year One
thousand feven hundred and forty two.
By this act the borough of Northampton was directed to raise the sum of
,£830. 73. iod., and a certain number of gentlemen, living in the town, were named
as commissioners, to carry out the act.
The remainder of the county was directed to raise .£46,882. 2s. 3d.
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 437
1 8ft <&m&t in. c. 79.
of the Local and Personal Acts declared public.
1778.
An Act for paving, cleanfmg, lighting, and watching the town
of Northampton ; and for removing and preventing Incroachments,
Obftructions, and Annoyances therein.
This act appointed a large number of the noblemen and gentlemen of the town
and county as commissioners to put the act into operation, and provided for the
election of new commissioners ; but no person (except the mayor) could act unless
he had a yearly income of £40 from lands or tenements, or a personal estate of
.£800 under a penalty. The commissioners, or seven, or more of them, were
directed to meet at the Guildhall on the third Thursday after the passing of the
act, and afterwards by adjournment; a chairman was to be appointed, and the
proceedings entered in a book. The commissioners were empowered to appoint
treasurers, clerks, collectors, and surveyors, and pay their salaries. The tenants or
occupiers of houses or other hereditaments were to be rated or assessed at two
shillings in the pound. But if the houses or other hereditaments were situate in
any street or place not mentioned in the schedule to this act, the tenants or
occupiers were only to pay two-thirds of the rate, until the streets or places were
paved with flag stones for foot passengers, and with rag stone or pebbles for horse
and carriage ways, in the same manner that the streets and places in the said
schedule were directed to be paved. One moiety of the rate to be borne by the
landlord, the other moiety by the tenant of the hereditaments. If the hereditaments
should not be of the annual value of £3, or if the tenants should be excused
from the payment of poor rates by reason of poverty, the before-mentioned rate
should not be raised. But houses unoccupied were not to be assessed. The mayor,
bailiffs, and burgesses were not to be considered owners on account of any ground
rent, their lessees being considered owners of the property. Agreements between
landlords and tenants as to paving or repairing streets were not to be deemed
void by reason of this act. The commissioners were empowered to raise the rate
by distress ; they might also lower the same if they thought fit. Halls, gaols,
chapels, church and chapel yards, and other public buildings situated on the streets
directed to be paved were to be rated at one shilling and sixpence a yard, running
measure, of the length of the front of such halls, yards, or buildings, except the
county hospital and the house belonging to the county gaol, which were to be
rated according to the poor rate, and except All Saints' church yard, and St. Giles'
church yard, which were to be rated at one shilling a yard running measure, and
except the Market Hill and Wood Hill (which had been repaired by the mayor,
bailiffs, and burgesses), and which were to be rated at one shilling a yard running
measure, and the breadth of such measure on the Market Hill was to extend from
gutter to gutter, taking the length of the Market Hill up the three divisions of
the same. And the South Bridge and West Bridge, which were to be rated at one
shilling and sixpence for every yard running measure. The rates on Market Hill
438 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
and Wood Hill, and any hall, gaol, or bridge belonging to the corporation were
to be paid by the chamberlain of the town ; on the county hall by the treasurer of
the west division of the county of Northampton ; on the county hospital by the
treasurer of the hospital ; on any almshouses by the masters or wardens ; on any
gaol by the gaoler; on any church or church yard by the churchwardens; and on
any chapel by the ministers and deacons. Any person or body corporate aggrieved
might appeal to the commissioners. The commissioners were empowered to erect
a gate and toll house on or near the South Bridge, or in Cotton End, in the parish
of Hardingstone, and take tolls thereat for all carriages, carts, or animals passing ; and
such tolls were vested in the commissioners. No inhabitant of the town was to
pay toll for any carnage, cart, or animal, except they were travelling for hire or
on Sundays; and the tolls were only to be paid once a day. The inhabitants of
any parish within eight miles of the town might compound for tolls : and the
inhabitants of certain named parishes were to be entirely free if the parish con-
tributed twenty shillings annually. Other exemptions were made, such as carts
laden with provisions for the use of the town, horses going to be shod or belonging
to officers when on duty, carriages carrying post, mail, or packet, or going to and
from the election of any knight of the shire or burgess of the town. Heavy
penalties were provided for those who evaded the tolls. The commissioners were
empowered to vary the tolls, and to let the same to farm. Carriages or carts
were not to drag their wheel, unless it had a sledge under it. The commissioners
were empowered to borrow money, assigning the rate as a security, by way of
annuity or otherwise, but the interest was not to exceed £g per cent. The whole
of the money borrowedj however, was not to exceed ^"10,000. The tolls were to
continue for the term of 21 years from the 24th June, 1778. The property
in all lamps, lamp-posts, watch-houses, pumps, and materials for mending
the streets, was to vest in the commissioners, who were empowered to order
any street or road in the town to be paved, and the footways in the streets
mentioned in the schedule to the act were as soon as possible to be paved with
flag stones, and the horse ways with rag stones or pebbles. The streets mentioned
in the schedule were to be first paved in the order in which they stand in the
schedule. The commissioners were empowered to take any materials out of the
lands known as the Northampton Fields. Lamps might be fixed to any buildings,
heavy penalties being provided for those who broke or extinguished the same
wilfully. The laying or repairing of the conduit pipes was to be done by the
commissioners, but at the expense of the corporation. The inhabitants were directed
to sweep the footpaths in front of their houses twice a week between the hours of
6 and 10 in the forenoon. The scavenger was to clean the streets once a week.
An exemption was made for rubbish occasioned by building operations. Penalties
were provided for any person wheeling barrows or driving cattle on the foot ways ;
or rolling a cask for the space of 40 yards ; or killing or cutting up any animal
in the public streets; or setting up any cock or fowl to be thrown at in the manner
called cock-throwing ; or exposing for sale any goods on the foot or carriage ways ;
or making any fires commonly called bonfires ; or throwing any squib or rocket.
No carriage or cart, with or without horses, was to be left in any road or street
in the town longer than was necessary for unloading the same. The commissioners
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 439
were empowered to remove all porches, steps, posts, or projecting windows that
might obstruct the ways. And to remove projecting signs or emblems affixed to
houses, but pent houses or projecting windows in places of the breadth of ten
yards or more were to remain. Persons might erect pales, posts, and chains, or
other fences, provided they did not obstruct the road way. The act was not to
affect certain tolls, then payable to the Earl of Pomfret, at Cotton End. Any
penalties under this act might be recovered by a distress warrant under the hand
and seal of any justice of the peace, and in case the distress was not paid the
offender might be committed to the common gaol or house of correction in North-
ampton for any time not exceeding three months. Any person aggrieved by any
thing done in pursuance of this act might appeal to the general quarter sessions of
the peace holden in and for the county of Northampton. All acts touching the
paving or repairing of highways or streets in the town were repealed.
The schedule to which this act refers.
I. Bridge Street, with the South Quarter.
II. Sheep Street, with North End.
III. Abington Street.
IV. Gold Street.
V. The Drapery.
VI. Mercer's Row.
VII. The Market Hill.
VIII. Saint Giles's Square, with the George Row.
IX. The Wood Hill.
X. Saint Giles's Street,
This Act was repealed by 5th & 6th William IV., c. 76.
III. t 77.
A Private Act.
1778.
An ACT for Dividing and Inclofing the Open and Common
Fields, Common Paftures, Common Meadows, and other Common-
able Lands and Grounds, within the Parifties of Saint Gyles, Saint
Sepulchre, Saint Lawrence, and Saint Andrew, in or near the
Town of Northampton, in the County of Northampton, fome or
One of them, and which are commonly called or known by the
Name of Northampton Fields.
The commissioners appointed under this act were William Pywell, of Barnwell
Castle, in the county of Northampton, gentleman ; John Sultzer, of Burton Overy, in
the county of Leicester, gentleman, ; and James King, of Daventry, in the said county
440 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of Northampton, gentleman. In conformity with the act the commissioners held their
meetings, after having given proper notices thereof. They then caused a survey of
the fields to be made, with regard to value, quantity, quality, and situation,
And then set out, assigned, and allotted the fields ; and set out the roads. These
commissioners, at a meeting held at the George Inn, in the town of Northampton,
signed and sealed their award, made by the authority of this act, on the 24th June,
1779. And the award was inrolled on the loth November, 1779, by Charles Morgan,
clerk of the peace for the county of Northampton. The original award is also at
the County Hall, Northampton, being engrossed on eleven skins of parchment,
each of which bears stamps to the value of 75. 6d.
37*
in. t. 42-
One of the Local and Personal Acts declared public.
24TH APRIL, 1797.
An Act for altering and amending an Act, pafled in the
Eightenth Year of the Reign of His prefent Majefty, intituled,
An Act for paving, cleanfing, lighting, and watching, the Town of
Northampton, and for removing and preventing Encroachments,
Obftructions, and Annoyances therein; and for continuing the
Term of certain Tolls by the said Act granted.
This act extended the period within which tolls might be levied for a further
term of twenty-one years; added the names of new commissioners; exempted the
inhabitants of certain villages south of the River Nene from payment of tolls ;
enacted that the building used as the then late County Hospital should be rated ;
and that the then new foot and carriage way leading out of St. Giles' street
towards the new General Infirmary should be a public road. This act is a very
short one. It was repealed by 5th and 6th William IV. c. 76.
40* torge HI. t 73.
A Private Act.
1800.
An ACT for the Sale of The George Inn, in the Town of
Northampton, vefted in Truftees for charitable Purpofes under the
Will of John Driden, Efquire, deceafed, and for inverting the
Money arifmg from the Sale thereof in the Purchafe of Three
Pounds per Centum Confolidated Bank Annuities, until a proper
Purchafe can be found, and in the mean Time for applying the
Dividends and Annual Produce thereof for the fame charitable
Purpofes.
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 441
The site of the George Inn belonged to John Driden, or Dryden, before 1675,
and he erected the inn immediately after the great fire in that year. By his will,
dated 2nd January, 1707-8, he gave the inn, with the appurtenances, to be
settled as his executors, with the advice of the mayor and aldermen of North-
ampton, should think most convenient to charitable uses within the town. In
1806 the inn was accordingly sold, in conformity with the above-mentioned act,
for the sum of ^1500. The purchasers, by articles of agreement dated the 24th
July, 1806, constituted themselves a Tontine company, consisting of 54 subscribers.
These persons nominated 90 lives at £$o each ; this sum amounted to ^4500,
which defrayed the cost of purchasing, repairing, altering, and furnishing the inn.
When the lives were reduced to four, the property was, under the articles, to be
divided. In 1873 there were 35 survivors ; and in 1887 there were only four
survivors, and the inn was therefore sold by auction for the sum of ;£io,55°> an(^
the proceeds divided.
54*ir (gwrgt in. c. 193.
One of the Local and Personal Acts declared public.
I4TH JULY, 1814.
An Act for better paving, lighting, watching, and improving
the Town of Northampton and for taking down, widening, and
rebuilding the Bridge over the River Nine or Nen, at the South
Entrance of the faid Town, and improving the Avenues to the
(aid Bridge.
This act recited that the powers granted by the before-mentioned acts of the
i8th and 37th George III. were insufficient; that the bridge over the river Nen in
the south quarter, was very ancient, narrow, inconvenient, and dangerous, and that
the piers thereof were constructed so as to impede the current of the river in times
of flood. The said acts of iSth and 37th George III. were accordingly repealed.
A large number of noblemen and gentlemen of the neighbourhood were appointed
as commissioners to carry out the act, with power to add to their number; each
commissioner to be qualified by being possessed of ^40 a year from land or £Soo
from personal estate, and to be liable to a fine for acting without being qualified.
The first meeting was to be held in the Guildhall on the second Monday after the
passing of the act, and the subsequent meetings by adjournment, public notice
thereof being given in the Northampton Mercury. The commissioners' powers were
to be exercised by a majority of those present at any meeting, and the proceedings
were to be entered in a book. Treasurers, clerks, collectors, and surveyors, with
salaries might be appointed, who should deliver true accounts in writing of all
things committed to them touching this act. In case any of the collectors of tolls
or other officers died, or became incapable of acting, others were to be appointed
in their stead, and their executors were to render account. The commissioners
442 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
might order any of the streets to be paved, and obtain stone or other materials
out of the Northampton Fields or the parish of Hardingstone, having given notice
to the occupiers of lands before they opened or worked pits. The expense of
repairing or relaying any conduit pipes was to be paid by the corporation to the
commissioners. Lamp irons might be fixed to any house or building, and penalties
were provided for any persons damaging or extinguishing the lamps. The lamps,
pavements, and all materials were vested in the commissioners. The occupiers of
houses were to sweep the footways in front of the same, between the hours of six
and ten in the morning once a week. The scavenger was to pass through the
town once a week at least to collect the dirt and ashes, giving notice of his
approach by bell, and having the words "Scavenger's Cart" painted in large
letters on his cart. Penalty provided for not removing rubbish, which was not,
however, to apply to rubbish occasioned by building. The commissioners were
empowered to take down the south bridge, or any part of the same, and to erect
a new good and substantial bridge of iron, stone, brick, or other materials, of a
width not less than 25 feet nor more than 40 feet, on or near the site of the
south bridge and to deepen or make the river wider or narrower near the bridge*
And the commissioners were required to make a temporary bridge before stopping
the old one. The commissioners were empowered to treat for and purchase certain
specified houses and dwellings situate in Bridge street and Cotton end, and two
houses which projected in Abington street were also to be purchased. In case the
owners of the specified houses would not treat, a jury was to be appointed to
settle the amount of the recompense to be paid for the same. After the com-
missioners had paid the purchase money the houses and buildings were to vest in
them, and the tenants were to quit on receiving six months' notice to do so. The
act contained a provision that houses or buildings situate in streets not paved with
flag-stones were only to pay two-thirds of the rate. The landlords and tenants of
the houses were to bear the rate in equal portions. But the rate was not to be
charged when the houses were unoccupied. The commissioners were empowered
to raise the rate by distress under a justice's warrant, and to lower the rate if they
thought proper. Provision was made for the rating of halls, gaols, churches,
churchyards, and other buildings, and for payment of the rate. The commissioners
were empowered to maintain the toll house in Cotton end, or erect a new one in
the same place ; and take tolls of all carriages, carts, or animals, with certain
exceptions. The tolls were vested in the commissioners, who were empowered to
recover the same, and to let the same to farm, and compound for the same. The
property in the said bridge, toll house, lamps, and other things was vested in the
commissioners. Money might be borrowed by the commissioners by mortgages of
rates, or granting of annuities. Penalties were provided for any persons causing
any annoyance by riding or driving on the footpaths, damaging the bridge, or
any fences or posts, or drawing wood or stone over the bridge except on a
wheeled carriage. And any persons taking any wheelbarrow on the footpath, or
rolling any cask for 40 yards, or killing animals or washing casks in the streets,
or exposing goods for sale, making bonfires, firing guns, or throwing crackers, or
leaving carriages, carts, or animals unattended were also liable to penalties. The
commissioners were empowered to remove any porch, projecting window, or sign.
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 443
But the commissioners might allow pent houses in streets of the breadth of ten
yards to remain ; and also palisadoes or posts and chains before houses. Penalties
were to be recovered by distress by a justice's warrant. There is a provision for
persons aggrieved to appeal to quarter sessions. The right of the Earl of Pomfret
to the tolls at Cotton end, and all the rights of the lord of the manor of the town
of Northampton were reserved. The tolls were to be continued for 21 years from
the second Monday after the passing of the act.
This act was repealed by the special act of 6th and jth Victoria, c. 78.
& ye* William iv. c. 64.
IITH JULY, 1832.
An Act to settle and describe the Divisions of Counties and
the Limits of Cities and Boroughs in England and Wales so far
as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Northampton is mentioned in Schedule O to this act as "The old Borough o£
Northampton," but the boundaries were not changed. This act has been partially
repealed by divers statutes.
5* & 6* William iv. c. 76.
QTH SEPTEMBER, 1835.
An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations
in England and Wales,
This statute was repealed by 45th and 46th Victoria, c. 50, s. 5. It is hereinbefore
mentioned on page 186.
William iv. & i«* Victoria c. 78-
i7TH JULY, 1837.
An Act to amend an Act for the Regulation of Municipal
Corporations in England and Wales.
This act was repealed by 45th and 46th Victoria, c. 50, s. 5.
444 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
7* OTilltam iv. & it Victoria c. 81.
iyTH JULY, 1837.
An Act to provide for the levying of Rates in Boroughs and
Towns having Municipal Corporations in England and Wales.
This act was repealed by 45th and 46th Victoria, c. 50, s. 5.
6«r & 7* Victoria t 78.
One of the Local Acts declared public.
28TH JULY, 1843.
An Act for better paving, lighting, cleansing and improving
the Town and Borough of Northampton.
This is the principal special act under which the town is governed at the
present time. It has been printed and published locally, and as it is readily
accessible, it has not been thought necessary to give any abstract of it here.
24*1* SMctorta c. 47.
One of the Local Acts.
7TH JUNE, 1861.
An Act to incorporate the Northampton Waterworks Company ;
to enable them to better supply the Town of Northampton and
the several Townships and Places adjacent thereto with Water ;
and for other Purposes.
This local act incorporated the Northampton Waterworks Company, which had
been originally established by deed dated the 6th October, 1837; and directed
that the company should supply Northampton with water, and if desired, the
parishes of Abington, Kingsthorpe, Dallington, Dust on, Hardingstone, Cotton End,
Far Cotton, and Saint James's End.
24% & 25* ®ittoda t 75-
6TH AUGUST, 1861.
An Act for amending the Municipal Corporations Act.
This act was repealed by 45th and 46th Victoria, c. 50, s. 5.
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 445
An
~~A *U^
3 1 at & 321* Victoria c. 46.
i3TH JULY, 1868.
An Act to settle and describe the Limits of certain Boroughs
and the Divisions of certain Counties in England and Wales, in
so far as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Northampton is named in the first schedule to this act as an old borough, and
the boundaries are enlarged and defined.
331* & 34* Victoria c. 45-
A Local Act.
20TH JUNE, 1870.
An Act to empower the corporation of Northampton to
establish Markets and Fairs ; and for other purposes.
This act gave the corporation of Northampton power to establish new markets
for horses, cattle, and various commodities ; and abolish, if they thought fit, the
existing markets in the Drapery, and Mercers' row, and near the west end of All
Saints' churchyard. It contains compulsory powers for purchase of land for five
years from the date of the act ; to raise money ; to bargain with freemen for sub-
stituted rights of common ; to make certain bye-laws as to (a) carriages plying
for hire, (b) hawking provisions, (c) weights and measures.
& 35111 3£ict0ria t 139.
A Local Act.
I3TH JULY, 1871.
An Act for amending the Northampton Improvement Act, 1843,
and for conferring on the Commissioners thereunder additional
powers ; and for other purposes.
This act amended the act of the 6th and jth Victoria, c. 78, repealing many
of the sections therein contained and substituting others. As it has also been
printed locally, no abstract of it is given here.
446 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
& 46tb Victoria t. 50.
i8TH AUGUST, 1882.
An Act for consolidating with [amendments, enactments relating
to Municipal Corporations in England and Wales.
This is the general act, under which all boroughs throughout the country are
governed at the present time.
45*11 & 46* Victoria c. 74.
A Local Act.
3RD JULY, 1882.
An Act to extend the Powers of the Northampton Waterworks
Company.
This act extended the limits within which the Waterworks company might supply
water to all villages within a radius of about eight miles from Northampton ;
and in several particulars amended the act of 24th Victoria, c. 47.
45* & 46* Victoria c. 212.
A Local Act.
IOTH AUGUST, 1882.
An Act to vest in the Corporation of the Borough of North-
ampton the race ground or freemen's commons ; to extinguish the
freemen's rights of pasturage in certain other lands of the
Corporation ; to empower the Corporation to form public parks,
and to make new street improvements; and for other purposes.
This act vested the freemen's commons or race ground containing pia. ir. 2pp.,
and Cow meadow, and other meadows in the Corporation, appointed trustees, with
power to provide for payment of annuities to freemen ; and gave the corporation
power to make parks and certain new streets.
ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 447
47«r & 48* Victoria t 208.
A Local Act.
28TH JULY, 1884.
An Act to provide for a further supply of water to the town
of Northampton and adjacent places and for other purposes.
This act was passed to enable the corporation to purchase the waterworks,
and to construct the new Ravensthorpe reservoir to take the waters of the Coton
brook, Ravensthorpe brook, and Teeton brook; to lay a line of pipes from the
reservoir ; and to supply the town and suburbs with water.
5ist & 52"& SFtctorta t 41.
i3TH AUGUST, 1888.
An Act to amend the Laws relating to Local Government in
England and Wales, and for other purposes connected therewith.
Northampton is named in the third schedule to this act as being an administra-
tive county of itself, and a county borough.
55* & 56* 3Mtt0rm c. 71.
Local Government Board's
Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 4) Act, 1892.
20TH JUNE, 1892.
An Act to confirm certain Provisional Orders of the Local
Government Board relating to the Urban Sanitary Districts of
Halifax, Milford, Northampton, Rochdale, Tenterden, and Wigan.
The order of the Local Government Board of the I3th April, 1892, contained
in the schedule to this act, modified certain sections of the 6th and 7th Victoria,
c. 78, and 34th and 35th Victoria, c. 139, and authorised the corporation to make
bye-laws.
448 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
56* & 57*11 Victoria t 229.
Local Government Board's
Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 13) Act, 1893.
i2TH SEPTEMBER, 1893.
An Act to confirm certain Provisional Orders of the Local
Government Board relating to the Urban Sanitary Districts of
Carshalton, Festiniog, Macclesfield, Northampton, Ossett, and Rich-
mond (Surrey), and to the Rural Sanitary District of the Wakefield
Union.
The order of the Local Government Board of the i8th May, 1893, contained
in the schedule to this act, gave the corporation power to purchase lands in the
parishes of Ecton, Cooknoe, and Whiston, for the purpose of using the same to
extend the sewage farm situated near Ecton.
of
Councife
flofbcn af
FF
COUNCILS AND PARLIAMENTS. 451
I.
II3I A great council was held by the king at Northampton,
at which all the principal men of the nation were said to
have been present.
At this council, the nobles all swore fealty to Maud,
the empress, upon whom the right of succession had been
settled by her father, the king.
1138 A council was held by the king, at which eight bishops,
April 10 twelve abbots, and many of the nobility and others were
present.
At this council several promotions in the church were
made in order to attach the clergy to the interest of the
king.
1146 The king held a council, at which the Earl of Chester
was deprived of all his castles.
II.
IJ57 A great council was held by the king, many of the
July 17 bishops, abbots, and principal persons of the kingdom being
present.
The cause between Theobald, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and Silvester, Abbot of St. Augustine at Canterbury,
respecting the latter's profession of obedience to the former,
was heard, in the presence of the bishops of Evreux, Bath,
Norwich, Chichester, Lincoln, and Hereford.
1164 A great council was held in the hall of the castle, the
Oct. 6 summonses were returnable that day. King Henry arrived
late, but Archbishop Becket was punctual.
FF 2
452 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Oct. 7 Becket made a complaint in the council against William
de Courci.
Oct. 8 The king gave sentence against Becket with regard to-
the affair of John Marescall.
Oct. 9 The king demanded from Becket the repayment of all
moneys advanced to the late chancellor in the expedition
to Toulouse in 1159.
Oct. 10 Archbishop Becket offered a fine of 2000 marks to the
King in discharge of an alleged debt.
Oct. ii The day was devoted by the king to councils. Becket did
Sunday not leave St. Andrew's Priory, where he was lodging.
Oct. 12 Becket was said to be ill.
Oct. 13 Becket performed mass at the altar of St. Stephen.
Oct. 14 Becket left St. Andrew's clandestinely, and went to
Eastry, near Sandwich.
The king, in the absence of Becket, pronounced sen-
tence against him. And he then proceeded to treat of
Welsh affairs in council.
circa The council of Northampton broke up, and the king left
Oct. 20 the town.
1176 The king and Prince Henry held a great council to
Jan. 26 consider and confirm the constitutions of Clarendon, and
at this council several statutes known as the Assize of
Northampton were passed.
William, King of Scots, the Archbishops of Canter-
bury and York, and several Scottish bishops, with others,
attended this council. A quarrel ensued as to whether
the Scottish bishops were to be subject to Canterbury or
York, and the matter was referred to the Pope.
The king at this council divided the kingdom into six
circuits, and appointed three justiciars to go on each
circuit. The county of Northampton was comprised in the
second (now the Midland) circuit ; and Hugh de Gundeville,
William Fitz Radulph, and William Basset were appointed
for this circuit. Hugh de Gundeville was sheriff of this
county and Hampshire ; and William Fitz Radulph of
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire,
COUNCILS AND PARLIAMENTS.
453
At the conclusion of this council the king probably
proceeded to Geddington.
1177 The king held a great council. Robert, Earl of Leicester,
circa and Hugh, Earl of Chester, were restored in blood and
Jan. 15 honours. William de Albini, son and heir of the late Earl
of Arundel, was created Earl of Sussex. The Count of
Flanders sent an embassy to this council, touching the
marriage of his nieces, the daughters of Matthew, late
Comte de Boulogne, and touching a certain agreement, with
regard to the crusade, which the Archbishop of Canterbury
and Bishop of Ely had made with him.
30IJTI
"99
circa A great council was held by the earls and barons for
April the purpose of taking an oath of fealty to King John.
1227
m.
1224
•circa The king held a council, at which the archbishops,
June bishops, earls, barons, and great nobles of the land were
present.
A council was held to settle the misunderstanding
between the king and his barons, in consequence of the
cancelling of the charter of the forests, which had been
granted during the king's minority. A scutage was also
assessed of three marcs for each knight's fee, by the advice
of the earls and barons.
1265 or A council was held, at which the king, archbishops,
1266 bishops, abbots, priors, and all the great men of the nation
were present, for the purpose of depriving the rebellious
barons of their estates; and at this council, Othoboni,
the Pope's legate, excommunicated the bishops and others
who had taken part with Montford against the king.
454 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
i.
1282-3 A parliament was summoned and held at Northampton
Jan. 20 for the counties south of Trent ; and at York for the
counties north of Trent.
Four knights were sent from each county, and two
men from each city, borough, and market town.
It does not appear that any statutes were passed at
this time.
No returns can be found of the members of this
parliament.
1307
Oct 13 Parliament summoned and held at this town.
The late king's funeral, and the coronation and marriage
of Edward II., and the whole state of the nation were
considered by the assembly.
By this parliament it was ordered that the base money,
which in the former reign no one wrould take, should on
pain of life and limb be current throughout the kingdom.
The representatives for the borough of Northampton
were Johannes de Lungevill and Robertus de Bedeford.
The king did not leave the town until the i8th October.
m.
1328 A parliament was summoned to meet, and was holden
Apr. 24 during the three weeks of Easter. At this parliament
the statute of Northampton, containing seventeen chaptersr
was passed. It was dated by the king at Northampton,
on the 22nd June, 1328.
The representatives for the borough were Johannes le
Waidour and Walterus de Burgo.
1336 A council was summoned to consider the proper
June 25 measures to be taken against France, and the preparations
for war.
COUNCILS AND PARLIAMENTS. 455
1338 A parliament was summoned and held at this
July 26 town.
This assembly was convened to consider what measures
should be taken against France, where preparations were
then making for war.
This parliament broke up suddenly because the Scots
commenced hostilities, and the king proceeded to Berwick
to meet them.
No statutes appear to have been passed at this
parliament.
The names of the representatives for the borough are
not given.
JUrfjarfc n.
1380 A parliament was summoned and held at Northampton.
Nov. 5 At this parliament the second statute of Northampton,
containing two chapters, was passed. The supplies which
had been granted for the service of the English Army in
Brittany were also made good.
This was the last parliament that was ever summoned
to meet within the walls of Northampton.
The names of the representatives for the borough are
not recorded.
The Rev. C. H. Hartshorne in his "Historical
Memorials of Northampton" mentions that councils were
also held in 1190, 1194, 1223, 1265, and 1268, but
without giving details.
Qtofce
on
BY
THOMAS GREEN, LL.B.
'"PHE following notes, compiled by Mr. Thomas Green, explain
those chapters of the Liber Custumarum which deal with
real estate, namely, houses or land; and by the courtesy of the
writer we are enabled to include these notes in this volume,,
feeling sure that they will be acceptable to all readers of the
" Northampton Borough Records," skilled in our early land laws.
The headings of the chapters are those given in the table of
contents by the transcriber of the fifteenth century (pp. 208-211).
The full text of the chapters will be found at pp. 213-236.
LEGAL NOTES. 459
LEGAL NOTES ON THE LIBER CUSTUMARUM
VILLM NORHAMPTONLE.
Cap0 j° Off londes and tenementes bought af? the vfage and
the Cuftomes of Norhampton and holden a yere and a day.
This chapter [set out at pp. 213-214] provides an extremely
short period of limitation. Unchallenged possession for a year and
a day from a purchase witnessed by the court, gives an absolute
title subject to extension in case of disability to a year and a day
from its cesser.
The concurrence of this provision with Professor Maitland's
theory that the only possession that could become ownership by
the lapse of a year and a day was a possession sanctioned by real
or fictitious litigation, has been already pointed out by the writer
in the "Law Quarterly Review."350 A question, however, arises
whether the limitation prevailed against all the world, or only
against those who had the droits de retrait mentioned in the
next chapter. The word " resonably," i.e., lawfully,351 and the
provision that the purchaser shall answer to no man "for non
manere purchase that upon hym may be purchased," suggest on
the first blush the narrower inference. The doubt-creating words
may, however, be disposed of by treating " resonably " as meaning
merely in due form of law, and " purchase" as equivalent to
persecutio^ i.e., action or proceeding in general. The use of
" purchase" in this wider sense will be found in chapters xxxi.
and Ivii. " Purchase," too, even in its modern popular meaning,
was closely connected with the proceedings in actions in general.
Kings sold their writs as they did their charters. The " nulli
vendemus " of Magna Charta was overlaid by elaborate glosses,352
and the statute of Westminster the second353 after the date of
350 L. Q.R. xiii., 116.
351 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 323.
352 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 174.
353 13 Ed. i., St. i., A.D. 1285.
460 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Magna Charta, still speaks of the purchase of writs in the
same sense in which a plaintiff may be said to purchase them
at the present day, when he affixes stamps under the orders
as to court fees. Add to these considerations that the period for
asserting the droits de retrait is shorter than a year and a day,
viz., four full courts, a space not covering more than fifteen
weeks, and that the enforcement of such droits is generally signi-
fied throughout the custumal by the special term " asking a cate,"
and we may with some confidence assume that the year and a day
limitation was a general bar, although probably the persons entitled
to the droits de retrait would get the advantage of that portion
of the chapter which deals with the case of disability.
Cap0 ij° ffor to afke a Gate of londe and in whiche maner.
This chapter [vide p. 214] recognises not only the peculiar
custom of droit de retrait lignagery^ but also of droit de retrait
Jeodal^ but the latter is to be exercised only secondarily and
conditionally on there being "no man of the lynage," or as it is
otherwise expressed "none of the blode." Both of these droits
go the length not only of embracing inherited but even purchased
realty, although the droit de retrait lignager is generally confined
to the former.356
These rights of preemption must be asserted within four full
courts after the previous sale becomes one of constructive public
knowledge, either through its original transaction in or subsequent
notification to the court.
The process of enforcement is set out with some minuteness.
The claimant appears in full court and asks for the cate. The
buyer and seller are summoned to the next court. On default
they are distrained to come to a second court. If their default
continues till a third court the land is seized by the bailiffs into
the king's hands, the claimant handing the price to the bailiffs
under his seal. At the fourth court unless replevin has taken
place, seisin of the land is delivered by the bailiffs to the claimant,
saving to the buyer when he comes " his resonable answerys," i.e.,
accountings, presumably the price he has paid, and any proper
outlay made by him before the claimant first asserted his right,
354 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 325, 632, 670; ii., 246, 328.
355 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 325, 632; ii., 311.
356 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 328.
LEGAL NOTES. 461
Provision is made for putting buyer and seller on oath as to
the true price, but a difficulty suggests itself as to what price the
claimant would have to deliver to the bailiffs if the parties
persisted in absenting themselves. The passage is somewhat
obscure, and it may be that the introduction of the " ii comen-
ners thow thei ben no mo" covered such an emergency, for there
is a somewhat analogous passage in cap. x. as to "the ii gode
men if ther be no mo which shullen witnessyn."
The " chefe lorde " who has this sort of jus emphyteuticarium
is according to the ancient normal construction357 the next imme-
diate lord as will be seen by chapter lv., contrasting the "chefe
lorde" with the " mor eyr (i.e., higher) chefe lorde." The lord's
preemption is, however, barred if he takes "the sales" (in cap.
xvi. called "the sellinges") i.e., a fine on alienation.
What is meant by " the kyne " is not so clear. Is it one
person or is it many as in Montenegro at the present day ? Is it
confined to males? How far does the limit of kinship ad hoc
extend, and what is the order of priority ? These questions, un-
fortunately, are left in some obscurity, for the custumal is as usual
but a graft on details assumed to be known. Owing also to the
destruction of the bulk of the borough records by the great fire of
Northampton in 1675, extrinsic evidence is not at present readily
obtainable. Chapters iii., ix., xi., xiii., xiv., afford the only intrinsic
light. This much, however, is clear, that the transcriber of the
fifteenth century regarded the heir as being the only person entitled,
for in his table of contents [vide pp. 208 to 211 ante'] he renders
the "sone," "daughter," and "kynne" of the text of cap. iii. as
"kin," the "kynne" of the text of cap. ix. as "right eyre," the
"sone" and "kynne" of the text of cap. xiii. as "eyre," and
the "kynne" of the text of cap. xiv. as "eyre."
Another interesting question arises with reference to the con-
tinuance of these droits de retrait. How happens it that in the
fifteenth century these rights are still spoken of as living insti-
tutions ? Probably when the customary right of alienation subject
to these droits arose, the borough stood in advance of the main
part of the kingdom, where alienation required the actual concurrence
of both heir and lord. But free alienation as against the heir was
357 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 218.
462 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
subsequently reached by the common law by the beginning, and
as against the lord by the end of the thirteenth century. The
retention, therefore, after this date of the droits in the borough
converted the quondam privileges into exceptional fetters. Of
course any non-statutory change in the general custom of the
kingdom would not affect the particular custom of the borough,
but what is to be said as to the droits de retrait after
the right of free alienation in general had been conferred by a
statute,358 since a statute will over-reach everything that is incon-
sistent with it, custom included ? The phenomenon can only be
explicable on the principle that the statute, so far as its enabling
provision was concerned, was construed as not intended to affect
the borough custom. Such a construction would be prompted by
various causes, amongst which may be enumerated —
(i.) The probable non-arrival at that early date at the con-
clusion affirmed almost hesitatingly centuries later by Coke359 and
Scriven,360 that general statutes affect ancient demesne. Although
many mesne lords might exist, yet the maxim was — u Once ancient
demesne always ancient demesne," and the borough was, in origin
at all events, too closely connected with the kingly control to permit
of the extension of the power of alienation by a statute not affecting
to bind the king. The case, in fact was similar to that of the
tenants in capite} whose powers were held not to be increased by
the statute.
(2.) The isolating effect of a succession of borough charters,
confirmatory of customs at a date when the king's charter would
practically rank with the king's statute.361
(3.) The constantly recurring confirmations of Magna Charta
containing an explicit reiteration of cap. ix. of that statute, as
issued 9 Henry iii., which preserved to the city of London its
ancient liberties and customs, and to all boroughs their liberties
and free customs, and which provision is quoted by Lord Coke as
368 Quia Emptores, Westminster the Third, 18 Ed. i., St. i, c. i, A.D. 1290.
Entitled in the parliament roll — Statutum regis de terris vendendis et emendis.
359 4 Inst., 270.
360 Scriven on Copyholds, 692.
361 The doctrine of non-obstante did not receive its death blow till the Bill of
Rights, i Wm. & M. St. 2, c. 2, A.D. 1689. Moreover the incorporation of
boroughs is yet an undoubted prerogative of the crown.
LEGAL NOTES. 463
connected with the preservation in the city of London of the
custom to alienate in mortmain despite the statutes of mortmain.362
One of these confirmations of the Great Charter in conjunction with
the Charter of the Forest occurred only seven years after Quia
Emptores, and it directs that all justices, sheriffs, mayors, and
other ministers shall allow the said charters to be pleaded before
them in judgment in all their points.
(4.) The enactment of 42 Ed. iii. c. i that if any statute be
made against either of these charters it shall be void, which enact-
ment according to Lord Coke, operated as a repeal of any
inconsistent statutes down to that date.363
Cap0 iij° That the kyng [kin] or the chefe Lord maken grement
with in viij daies of the tenement to hem graunted.
This chapter [p. 215] enables a man to free himself from the
droits de retrait by an intimation out of Court of his intention
to sell. The party receiving notice must then buy within eight
days or such longer time as the intending vendor may concede.
The droit de retrait lignager is also shown to extend to an
alienation, in consideration of a quasi corody.
Cap0 iiij° Off dower of women aftir the vfages and the lawes
of the toun of Norhampton and how thei mall be dowed.
This chapter [pp. 215-216], enabling a husband to endow his
wife with money to the exoneration of his realty, appears to
accord with the common law position in the time of Glanville, but
which apparently had ceased in Littleton's day.364
The incapacity of the dowress to commit waste is also in
keeping with the common law. Possibly its express mention may
be due to the fact that until the statute of Marlborough 365 it
was a matter of controversy whether a conventional tenant for
life,366 as distinguished from a life tenant in dower or by the
362 2 Inst.,21.
363 I Inst. 81.
364 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 418, 419. Ranulf de Glanville was
chief justiciar of England under Hen. ii. Littleton was a judge in the reign of
Ed. iv.
sea 22 Hen. iii., A.D. 1267.
366 That is a tenant for life taking under a disposition of the parties. A tenant in
dower or by the curtesy took by mere operation of law.
464 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
curtesy was liable for waste unless expressly debarred by the
terms of the bargain.367 The wife who had arranged to receive a
sum of money in lieu of her dower, and who held the land by
" comaunde " of the heir till he was able to pay, might be regarded
as in the position of a conventional tenant for life. At all events
it was an abnormal position, and hence the desirability of the
express prohibition in our custumal.
It is not clear whether the chapter covers post-nuptial as well
as pre-nuptial arrangements, but if so, the necessity of the enrol-
ment of the indenture in "the Comyn rolle of dower" may be
deemed effective, either as a fictitious judicial act, or as securing
testimony of free concurrence on the part of the wife,368 and
resembling the operation of a fine in the case of land subject to
the rules of the common law.
Cap0 vto Off knowliches of wyfes made of doweryes in the
Court and of other Rightes that to hem myght fallen.
This chapter [p. 216] enables the wife on a sale by her husband
of his own realty to quit claim by a curial acknowledgment entered
on the " Commoun Rolle" of any right she may have by wray of
dower or otherwise. Again the process is analogous to a fine at
the common law.
Cap vjto If a man take a Wife that hath londe tenement or
Rent of erytage or yeven in fre mariage how thei may hit sell.
This chapter [pp. 216-217] appears to enable husband
and wife by joint dispositions to sell her inherited realty, or
realty given with her in frankmarriage, and apparently expresses
in somewhat confused language that the position is to be assimi-
lated (liker) to that of a sale by the husband of his own realty,
the object possibly being to give the droits de ret rait. A second
husband is not, however, to stand in the same position as the
first for alienative purposes where there are children of the first
marriage
The absence of any curial ceremony on the part of the wife
is probably due to the custom having arisen at a period when at
the common law a fine was not essential to a conveyance of a
3(* Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 9.
368 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 410, note 4.
LEGAL NOTES. 465
wife's lands, but her mere concurrence in the disposition was
sufficient.369
The enabling custom as to lands given in frankmarriage does
not appear to depend for its efficacy on the fulfilment of any
condition that issue shall be born, as was the case with fees
conditional at the common law, of which frankmarriage is treated
as a species in the statute De donis conditionalibus™
Why the borough custom retained its pristine vigor free from
the prohibition against alienation, which by that statute fell on
frankmarriage in common with other conditional fees at the com-
mon law371 may be accounted for by the suggestions made under
cap. ii., as to the survival of the droits de retrait notwithstanding
the passing of Quid Emptores, and to these suggestions may be
added the further one that since the borough custom permitted of
alienation by the spouses independently of the birth of issue, there
was no conditionality at all involved, and so the case was altogether
outside a statute which, as its name imports, dealt only with
conditional gifts. It may further be contended that the statute
only operated as a declaration of the ancient law, into which
abuses had crept, and consequently that the case was brought
within the principle of Lord Coke 372 that if a statute in the negative
be declarative of the ancient law, a custom may be prescribed
against it as well as it may against the common law itself.
It will be observed that the custom does not extend to ordinary
fees conditional at the common law. They being protected by no
special custom, would doubtlessly fall under the restrictions im-
posed by the statute, seeing that those restrictions could not operate
to the prejudice of the crown.
The statement that alienation may take place for poverty or
without poverty, suggests a remoter period, when the then existing
restraints on alienation were only relaxed under stress of circum-
stances equivalent to the Echte Noth of German law.373
The language of the whole chapter is by no means unambiguous.
The reference to " giftes joynte" may mean that to allow of
369 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 408.
370 Westminster the second, 13 Ed. i., St. i, A.D. 1285. The statute to which
indestructible entails owed their temporary efficacy.
371 i Inst, 179.
372 Co. Litt, lisa.
873 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 311, 419.
GG
466 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
alienation it was necessary that the gift should have been made
expressly to husband and wife, so as to create an interest similar
to that which after De Donis came to be known as an estate in
special tail in the two spouses as distinguished from one in the
wife alone. Littleton 374 shows, however, that such a joint estate
is the inherent position in a gift in frankmarriage. "In the same
manner it is where tenements are given by one man to another
with a wife (which is the daughter or cousin to the giver) in
frankmarriage, the which gift hath an inheritance by these words
(frankmarriage) annexed unto it, although it be not expressly said
or rehearsed in the gift (that is to say) that the donees shall have
the tenements to them and to their heires between them two
begotten. And this is called especial taile because the issue of
the second wife may not inherit." Coke375 also quotes a case in
5 Ed. iii., tending to show that whether the woman or the man be
mentioned as the donee in frankmarriage the result is the same, and
they both take the estate in special tail. There the gift was by
Robert, after the death of his wife Agnes, to Stephen de la More,
" Habendum post mortem dictae Agnetis in liberum maritagium cum
Johanna filia ejusdem Roberti " ; and it was held that both took in
special tail, though Joan was not mentioned in the premises and
only came in in the habendum with a cum. Still it is probable that
the common law at the date of Littleton had altered its shape
from that which it presented in the time when the Northampton
custom arose, and that the earlier idea was that a gift to a woman
in frankmarriage vested the inheritance in her alone, and not in
her and her husband conjointly.376
Another ambiguity is produced by the reference to the husband's
proper heritage or purchase. This may amount to a substantive
statement that the spouses may together dispose of those subjects,
but having regard to the provisions of the last chapter, no object
seems to be served by such a statement, unless perchance it were
intended to declare that if the wife concurred in a feoffment of
the husband's lands the necessity for any curial acknowledgment
on her part was dispensed with. Moreover the transcriber of the
custumal in his head-note [p. 216] treats the present chapter as
limited to the wife's lands.
374 I Inst., 21.
375 I Inst. 21.
376 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 15, 17.
LEGAL NOTES. 467
Another ambiguous clause is that which restrains the second
husband from alienating- the wife's heritage or frankmarriage if
she has children by the first husband. This would be a curious
provision if it means what it literally says, for the inferential
hypothesis that it was in any way within the range of possibility
for a husband alone to alienate his wife's realty, suggests traces
of some dotal system where a husband could alienate a wife's
immovables without her consent377 or at all events of an early
period when the law had not been clearly settled and attempts
were not infrequent on the part of husband to alienate the lands
of the wife by his own act.378 If the provision only means that
the second husband has not, in conjunction with his wife, the
dispositive power of the first husband, if there happen to be
children of the first marriage, it merely amounts to the probable
position that the early common law prohibition of alienation of
estates of inheritance in general, and of frankmarriage in par-
ticular379 had never been relaxed in the borough in the case of a
mother who re-married. It is observable that if the provision now
under discussion can be read positively as well as negatively, it
suggests that if there be no issue of the first marriage the wife and
the second husband can together alienate not only her heritage but
even her frankmarriage held in the time of her first coverture, i.e.,
that the absence of children of the first marriage gives the second
husband the rights of the first husband as to alienation in con-
junction with the wife.
Cap vij° If a man take a Wyfe & hath JiTue and aftir }>e
dethe of that wife take anoper wife and have alfo Jlftie how her380
erytage & her purchafle fhalbe porciunde a monge hem alle.
This chapter [p. 217] regulates the heirship to a man as between
his children by two marriages, and it contains the first provision
which authorises a gratuitous disposition. The children, male or
377 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law. ii., 398.
378 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 407.
379 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 16, where it is stated that
under twelfth century law the estate of the donee in frankmarriage was deemed
inalienable.
10 The text of the chapter shows that the provision relates to the husband's and
not the wife's property.
GG 2
468 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
female, of the first marriage, are to be preferred to children of a
second marriage as heirs to purchased realty, but there is absolute
liberty to give or devise it to the children of the second marriage
"etc."381 A similar preference in heirship is given to the first
children in respect of inherited realty held by the father in the
time of the first marriage, but no authority is conferred to dispose
of this in favour of the second children. The provision as to descent
is peculiar, e.g., a daughter of the first marriage would exclude a
son of the second. It is indeed questionable whether (subject to
the preference of the first family) the language does not point to
the existence of a custom of par-age and parage of an unusual
kind, viz., equal distribution among all the children, male and female.
Such a custom existed at Wareham, Taunton, and Exeter,382 and
there is a passage from the Anglo-Norman laws, known as the
Leges Willielmi, tending to suggest the general prevalence of such
a rule, " Si home mort senz devise se depertent les enfans lerite
entre sei per uwel " — [If a man dies without devise let his chil-
dren divide the inheritance equally.383] By the end, however, of
Hen. iii., the common law as to descent had attained the main
features which it now presents, one of them being the exclusion of
females by males of equal degree, and the existence of primo-
geniture among males.384 The customs referred to in this
chapter, as well as those mentioned in chapters xi. and xiii.,
doubtlessly arose before Hen. ii., in whose reign the common law
had arrived at the point that inter mvos alienation, gratuitous or
otherwise, of the whole realty, whether inherited or purchased,
could take place even to a stranger as against the heir, but testa-
mentary disposition, which had long struggled for existence, was
forbidden altogether.385.
Cap0 viij° How the hulbonde fhall holde the ffree Mariage of
his wiffe by the Curtafly of Jnglond.
The provision contained in this chapter [p. 217] resembles that
of the common law as to the husband's curtesy in his wife's estate
381 Vide Chapters xi. and xiii. for expansions of this " etc."
382 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 259.
383 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 265.
384 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 257.
385 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 247.
LEGAL NOTES. 469
in fee simple, in fee conditional at the common law, or frank-
marriage.386 If he had issue by her born alive, capable of inheriting
the estate of inheritance in question, he acquired an estate for his
whole life in lieu of an interest which terminated with the coverture.
The prohibition of gift, sale, or mortgage by a mere tenant by the
curtesy points to this provision having originated at a date when
no very precise notions had been reached as to the husband's rights
over the wife's realty. The curious demand for a cry being heard
within the house is explained in Edward the First's day, as the
resultant of males being the only credible witnesses in the king's
courts, and their natural absence from a birth-chamber.387
The forty days or quarantine allowed to the husband, is
similar to that allowed to the widow by Magna Charta, in respect
of her occupation of the principal house after the death of her
husband.
The custumal only mentions curtesy in connection with frank-
marriage, and in this respect resembles Glanville's treatment.
This may be due to the desire to allay doubt, for the law as
to the nature of frankmarriage was at one time anything but
clear, and gave rise to much litigation in the interval between
Glanville and Bracton.388 The Scottish law even of to-day gives
curtesy only in respect of the wife's inherited lands.889
Cap0 ix° How a man may londe tenement or Rente laye to
wed with owten Chalenge of Right Eyre or of chefe lords.
This chapter provides a means whereby the droit de retrait
lignager or the droit de retrait feodal may be barred by a pro-
posing vendor or mortgagor offering in the presence of witnesses
to sell or mortgage to the person entitled to the right. This
provision differs from that in cap. iii. in extending to mortgages
as well as sales, and in its operation being dependent on an
immediate refusal.
386 At least this was the case as to frankmarriage in Glanville's day. Pollock
& Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 412, 414.
W Pollock and Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 415.
388 Bracton was a judge under Hen. iii.
389 Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 16, 413, 414, 418.
470 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Cap0 x° Iff the wardes of Rentes ovir Rennen of tenement in
Norhampton and Recovere he (hall haue be warde.
This chapter [pp. 218-219] provides remedy where rent is in
arrear. The common law in the thirteenth century was extremely
reluctant to make non-performance of services a cause of forfeiture
of the tenement. The lord's remedies were — (i) Action in the
king's court of a real character, whereby the rent was indirectly
obtained. (2) Distress. (3) Redeemable seizure of the land if
the lord had a court of his own to enable seizure. It was not
till two statutes of Ed. i.390 gave the action quod cessamt infra
biennium borrowed directly from the canon law and indirectly
from the Emphyteutic remedy of the civil law that an eject-
ment could be obtained in the king's court when default in
performance of services had continued for two years.391 The
custom of Northampton seems to have been equally considerate.
The tenant prevents his lord distraining for rent by shutting up
the house. The court, after ordering an official inspection, awards
the lord entry by the bailiffs through the usual accesses, in order
that he may distrain the doors and windows, and any non-fixtures.
If the distress (in those days not saleable) fails to bring the tenant
to book, the court orders another official view, to see if there is
anything else which may be distrained, and on the viewers
reporting in the negative the court awards the lord possession for
a year and a day, and that the doors and windows be hung
again. If that time elapses without satisfaction being made, the
court accords him permission to let and repair the premises, but
in order that the tenant may not be improved out of his in-
heritance, a cheap class of materials only is to be used. The
tenant or his heir may require an account, and may redeem on
payment of arrears and expenses. If the lord refuses to accept
the tender, the court will order him to do so, and failing com-
pliance will re-award possession. Although the chapter starts with
the supposition that the tenant has prevented distress by shutting
up the house, yet, doubtlessly, that portion of the remedy which is
given on insufficiency of distress would be available in any case,
whether the house had been closed or not. The distraining the
doors and windows transcends the power of a landlord of the
390 Stat. Glouc., c. 4. Stat. Westm., ii., c. 21.
391 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 333.
LEGAL NOTES. 47!
present day. It was probably intended to make the tenant as un-
comfortable as possible, and so drive him to make his peace.
The doors and windows are contemplated as capable of being
easily re-hung, but the limit of the distraining power is drawn at
things " faste in the erthe."
Cap0 xj° How aman may selle his londe tenement or Rent
purchafed alle though his Eyre him wolde w*feyn.
This chapter [p. 219] provides that if a man has realty of
heritage as well as of purchase, he may give or sell the latter
to anybody he pleases, regardless of his heir. This cuts into the
heir's rights in two ways. It deprives him of his droit de retrait
on sale, and also of his right to object to gratuitous dispositions,
when made outside certain narrow limits. The existence of an
heir, even though incapable of objecting, would, too, deprive the
lord of his droit de retrait, for that is dependent on there being
none of the blood.
Cap0 xnj° How aman may gefe to his oon doughter a parte of
his herytage or of his purchas withoute geynfeyyng of Eyre or
of his chefe lorde.
The custom embodied in this chapter [p. 220] is the only one
authorising a disposition of inherited realty otherwise than for
pecuniary or quasi-pecuniary consideration. It permits part —
probably a reasonable part392 — of either inherited or purchased
realty to be given to daughters in frankmarriage, without any
right on the part of lord or heir to object. The peculiarities of
this tenure or estate will be found in Pollock & Maitland's
History of English Law.393 The custom is limited to gifts to
daughters, but at the common law gifts to cousins, and even to
sons in frankmarriage were not unknown.394 The custom mentions
that the lord's service is to be saved, and in this resembled the
common law, which did not prejudice the right of the lord to
resort to any part of the land for his services, but bound the
392 The Norman custom was one-third part. Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng.
Law, ii., 15.
393 Vol. ii., 15, 17.
394 i Inst., 22.
472 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
donor and his heirs to acquit the donee, and the donees issue
from such forinsec services till the fourth degree of consan-
guinity had been passed.
We are now in a position to summarise roughly the extent of
the alienative power prevailing as to fee simple estates in the
borough as disclosed by the custumal.
A man could
I. As to both purchased and inherited realty
(i.) Sell and mortgage to anybody, subject to the droits
de retrait lignager and feodal.
(2.) Give part to daughters in frankmarriage.
II. As to purchased realty.
(i.) Give or devise to children of a second marriage.
(2.) Give or sell to anybody, free from any droit de retrait,
provided the alienor has inherited lands.
It has already been pointed out how the conservation of whilom
privileges might cause a borough to lag behind the main part of
the kingdom when the common law attained to a higher freedom
than the privileges had ever conferred. The custumal shows this
disadvantageous result hampering Northampton in the fifteenth
century, although the common law had nearly two centuries before
shaken off all restraints in favour of lord and heir imposed on
inter vivos alienation of ordinary fee simple estates. The attain-
ment by the borough of a level with the rest of the realm
would at the latest be produced by the operation of statute
32 Hen. viii., c. i, explained by 34 and 35 Hen. viii., c. 5,
which conferred on fee simple tenants in socage or in the nature
of socage 395 the fullest alienative power, both inter vivos and
by will. The terms of these statutes show a clear intention to
bind the crown, and Lord Coke treats them as extending to
boroughs subject to customary law.396
Cap0 Xllij0 That no deceyte be where thorough the Eyre or the
chefe lorde be for barred of her Right that toucheth ffree
tenement.
Cap. ix shows that the kin and the lord have the preferential
right to make the advance where a man desires to mortgage (leyen
395 The Northampton tenure was burgage, and Littleton speaking of burgage
says, " Et tiel tenure nest forsque tenure en socage " [And such tenure is but
tenure in socage]. I Inst., 109.
396 i Inst., 115.
LEGAL NOTES. 473
to wedde). The present chapter [p. 220] affords the opportunity
of asserting the right. It also strikes at evasion of the droits de
retrait by a demise of such a character as practically to amount
to a sale or mortgage. It is observable that the custumal contains
no such protective provision as against subinfeudation in fee.
Obviously, a collusive subinfeudation at a nominal service would
be equally subversive of the droits de retrait. It is apprehended
that the reason of the omission is that though the enabling
provision of Quiet Emptores did not apply to the borough, 397
yet it was otherwise with the restrictive provision of that
statute prohibiting subinfeudation, and that subinfeudation there-
after became no longer possible. A similar theory as to the
somewhat resembling case of tenants in capite, is suggested in
Mr. Challis' work on the law of real property.398 Subinfeudation
would not, of course, be saved on the ground of particular custom,
for it had been the general custom of the realm.
Cap0 xv° Off hem that Sofferen her rente too patten A yere
or too or thre in dilheritfoun of her tenaunte.
We get in this chapter [pp. 220-221] an early analogue of
recent statutory provisions limiting a landlord's right of distress.
In the case provided for by the chapter the tenement is either
empty, or occupied by persons other than the demesne freeholder.
The lord quietly lets the rent due from the freeholder get into
arrear without reminding the latter of the fact. The freeholder
may, from absence or otherwise, be under the belief that the rent
is being kept down by occupants. At least the lord sleeps on his
rights, and he is penalised with the loss of all his rent beyond a
year. The case will be otherwise if he has required the free-
holder to pay, and the latter has begged time in the presence of
witnesses.
Cap0 xvj° Off Rentes and Releves to be hadde aftir the viages
the toun of Norhamptofi.
This chapter [p. 221] provides for two things, payment of
relief on death, and fyne (sellynges) on alienation. Though
39' Vide ante under cap. ii.
398 Challis on real property, p. 20.
474 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Bracton doubted whether as to socage tenure, of which burgage
is a species, anything could properly be called a relief, although
quoedam proestatio was due.399 The object of paying one relief if
several tenements are held of the same lord is not very apparent,
for doubtless the one relief would be the aggregate of the individual
reliefs. The provision may have originated at a time when relief
(relevatio) entailed a ceremony, and till relief the lord was entitled
to take and hold possession. The compression of all the cere-
monies into one would have a tendency to prevent all undue delays
to the tenants' detriment, to say nothing of the multiplication of
court fees. The lord is only entitled to take the fine on alienation
if he does not assert his right of preemption.
It is noticeable that relief and fine are treated as payable in
respect of rents held by one man of another by a rent service or
vested in one man by the grant of another. It is presumed that
the position is that denoted in Pollock & Maitland's History of
English Law,400 viz., that a man who is entitled to a rent service
from a terretenant grants it to a third person, reserving, however,
all the other services of the terretenant. On the death or
alienation of the terretenant the grantee of the rent is then
naturally the proper person to receive the relief or the fine.
When reliefs and fines on alienation in the borough became
obsolete is a matter of conjecture. Nothing in the statutes401 of
32 Hen. viii., c. i, and 34 and 35 Hen. viii., c. 5, affects them, nor
does the 12 Car. ii., c. 24,403 except in so far as any fines for
alienation might be due to the crown. Their obsolescence is
doubtlessly due to natural causes, such as the passing into oblivion
of mesne lordships and petty services to which no practical value
continued attached.
Cap0 xvij° Off noyefaunce of walle} hegges or gotters well
dykekyngf or of other lyked thing to neyghbores.
This chapter [p. 221], is noteworthy as presenting an admirably
short remedy for matters of trifling value, but involving dispro-
portionate expense if litigated at length in the ordinary course.
399 Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 289.
400 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 129.
401 Quoted under chapter xiii. ante.
402 The statute whereby, with minor exceptions, all tenures were turned into free and
common socage, and various burdens affecting real property abolished.
LEGAL NOTES. 475
Cap0 xxxj° That no man of the toun of Norhamptori ne
emplede othir owte of the fraunchife by no man9 purchafe.
This chapter [p. 226], compelling burgesses to sue one another
in the borough court, subject to the right to resort elsewhere if
justice be denied, supports the proposition advanced in the com-
ments under cap. i. that "purchase" in that chapter means
persecutio^ i.e., action or proceeding in general, and not merely the
droits de ret rait.
Cap0 1° What aman fhall paie to the profite of the toun for
londe and tenement} bought in the fame toun.
This chapter [p. 231] shows that the advalorem duty now
payable on conveyances of ten shillings in the £100 would only
equal three-fifths of the old tax, assuming the ratios of the
values of money and land were identical at the two periods.
The right to impose the tax would be included in the concession
by Ric. i. to the burgesses of the firma burgi, which was a com-
plex of rights — a group of sources of revenue.403 As the king had
at this early date not lost his right to tallage his boroughs he
could permit them to tallage themselves.401
Cap0 liiij0 What power the chefe lorde hath of tenement that
his tenaunt holte of hym in ffee within the ffraunchife of Nor-
hampton.
This chapter [pp. 232-233] provides for the following state of
affairs. The lord complains to the bailiffs that his tenant in fee
is wasting or destroying his tenement to the risk of the rent.
The bailiffs thereupon attach anything in the nature of tene-
mental material found on the premises, or bought or taken therefrom.
The former they deliver to the lord to be held as distress for
arrears of rent or other services. The latter attachment awaits
the decision of the court. The tenant may get his property again
on satisfying the arrears, and giving sufficient security for making
good the dilapidations. The expression " tymbren it up agayne "
403 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, i., 635.
404 Pollock & Maitland's Hist. Eng. Law, i., 647.
476 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
points to that early period when for the most part houses were
constructed of wood. If there has been any unrightful sale the
buyer as well as the seller is to be grievously amerced. A charge
of theft was, of course, out of the question, for what was taken
away was part of the freehold, and the property would rather be
in the tenant than the lord. The passage "if any man be feffed
of londe tenement or rente and he tho thonges to him feffed
wolde wasten or distryuen," is peculiar so far as a rent is con-
cerned, for though the expression enfeoffed of a rent in the sense
of being seised of it is accurate enough,4*15 yet it is difficult to see
how a rent could be wasted or destroyed by the owner of it to
the detriment of a chief lord. The peculiarity of expression may
be accounted for by the fact that the wasting of the physical
tenement out of which a rent issues operates indirectly as a waste
of the rent. If the rent so wasted is one held in mesne by service
as mentioned in cap. xvi., and the mesne holder has got into pos-
session of the physical tenement for default of payment the
language is explained. The remedy given by the chapter presents
some analogy to the process of pignoris capio when employed in
respect of damnum infectum in the Roman law, though the object
to be attained was to a certain extent disparate.
Cap0 IV? If aman holde atenement in c^teyne of anothir And
the tenement be charged to anothir more fouereyn chefe And that
ilke mene is holden him to aguyten and Reffeyue the syluer of his
tenaunt.
The position denoted in this chapter [p. 233] is that a superior
lord distrains on the demesne tenant who has performed his due
and fixed service to the mesne lord. The court on complaint
awards that demand shall be made of the mesne lord in the
presence of witnesses that he should exonerate the complainant.
Failing compliance the court will award that the complainant shall
hold nu a nu of the superior lord till the mesne lord performs his
duty. The remedy is analogous to that afforded by the Breve de
Medio, which was in general use in the thirteenth century.406
405 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii., 131.
406 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, i., 217.
LEGAL NOTES. 477
In the present chapter, as also in chapters x., xv , and liiii.,
will be found in varying aspects, the fundamental idea of the early
law that in respect of a freehold rent the land itself was the debtor,
and that there was no power to enforce payment or indemnity in
respect of such rent by any remedy in the shape of an action in
personam based upon a personal obligation. All the processes
referred to in these chapters are of a purely real and cumbersome
character. In chapter x. the lord may distrain for the rent, and as
an ultimate remedy get possession of the land, but though the distress
and the possession are mere pledges in both cases, no suggestion
of the possibility of any personal remedy is given in case the tenant
chooses to remain recalcitrant and leave the pledges on the lord's
hands. In chapter xv. too the only remedy contemplated is that of
distress. The lord by his negligence is to lose all rent except that
accruing within a year of the period when he chooses to distrain.
It says nothing about any similar deprivation in a personal action,
for no personal action was deemed possible. Again in chapter
liiii , where there is peril to the rent by the waste or destruction
of the tenement, we get as the remedy of the lord attachment of
the tenemental property only. And lastly, in the present chapter
the only relief the injured terretenant can get is to be placed in
immediate relation with the superior lord till the mesne lord
exonerates him from the damages sustained by the non-performance
of the superior service.
In Pollock & Maitland's History of English Law,40? will be found
a full description of the position. That these matters are not of
mere antiquarian interest is shown by the recent case of re Herbage
Rents Greenwich.m
Cap0 lvij° The ffresh fors of the toun of Northampton Alls well
for pore as for Riche.
The process mentioned in this chapter [pp. 234-235] appears to
supply a customary equivalent for the assizes of Novel Disseisin
and Mort d' Ancestor. It consists in the immediate seizure by
the bailiffs into the king's hands, and a subsequent adjudication
4°7 Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, 123-134.
18 '96 2 Ch. 8n. See also the article by Mr. T. Cyprian Williams on Landowners'
liability to pay Rent charges in fee, xiii., Law Quarterly Review, 288.
478 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
of seisin by the court to the claimant who has the best prima
facie title, the other claimant being left to his remedy by action
if he is dissatisfied.
Although no mention is made of Disseisin it can scarcely be
supposed that this a more flagrant act involving a breach of the
peace with amercement, would be left with a less summary remedy
than Abatement and Intrusion, and it is therefore possible that
Intrusion in the custumal may have been intended to embrace a
wider class of cases than is usually technically associated with that
term. The fact that hue and cry is raised tends to suggest the idea
that an act of some apparent illegality was being committed, nor
is it to be forgotten that Northampton was ancient demesne®® and
that Intrusion has a special meaning with reference to lands directly
connected with the crown.410 The heading given by the transcriber
of the chapter lends some countenance to this view, for he speaks
of fresh force, a term peculiarly applicable to Disseisin recently
perpetrated.
409 i.e., in the demesne of the crown in the reign of Edward the Confessor and
William the Conqueror, and in Domesday Book denominated Terrce Regis Edwardi
or Terra Regis.
10 Wharton's Law Dictionary. Title Intrusion.
479
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.
e 3. Note 3. For Brands read Brando.
25. Line 4 of the Latin. For mull' read null'.
38. Line 6. For folio nob read folio 1053.
54. The date of Letters Patent. For 1284 read 1285.
55. Line 12. For 2pth August read 24th June.
61. The date of Please of the Crown. For 1330 read 1329.
61. Line 3 from bottom. For 1330 read 1329.
62. Line 3. For Kingsbroth read Kingsbooth.
64. The date of Letters Patent. For 1330 read 1329.
93. Line 5 from bottom. For 1478-9 read 1477-8.
116. The date of Letters Patent. For 1541 read 1547.
124. Line 7 from the bottom. For January ist read September 8th.
124. Line 2 from the bottom. For December 27th read July 25th.
134. Line 6. For January ist read September 8th.
134. Line n. For December 27th read July 25th.
141. Line 18. For January ist read September 8th.
141. Line 23. For December 27th read July 25th.
145. Note 184, line i. For Maundaunt read Mordaunt.
145. Note 184, line 8. For Earl Maudaunt read The Earl of Peterborough.
195. Line 6. For fourpence read tenpence.
195. Line 8. For eightpence read elevenpence.
The original claim was for tenpence toll on waggons, and eleven-
pence on beast. These sums were reduced during the trial, and when
the Lord Chief Justice summed up, the sums were fourpence and
eightpence respectively.
202. Note 197. For 1487 read 1486-7.
203. Line 9 from bottom. For faille read faille.
215. The headings of the third and fourth chapters should be transposed.
And for " King or Chief Lord " read " Kin or Chief Lord."
222. Note 205. Slapton is an error in the Liber for Slipton, a small village
near Thrapston. See note on page 62.
226. The heading of Chapter xxxj. should be — Against Impleading out of the
Franchise.
226. The heading of Chapter xxxij. should be — As to Entry on the Roll of
the Decimer or Doziner.
228. The heading of Chapter xxxix should be — Concerning Covins or Frauds.
230-1. The headings of Chapters xlviij. and liij. should be — Of Vendors of
Wode.
232. The heading of Chapter liiij. should be — Concerning Remedy for Waste
commited to the detriment of the Lord.
480 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Page 261. Note 228. Add date, 1395-6.
„ 274. Note 243. For 1442-3 read 1422-3.
„ 356. The heading of the chapter. For Shoemakers read Shearers or Cloth-
workers.
„ 356. Note 302. The Priory of the Carmelites stood at the angle of Wood
street and Abington street, opposite to St. George's Hall.
„ 430. Note 348. George Coldwell was town clerk from 1592 to 1618.
„ 430. Note 349. Tobias Coldwell was town clerk from 1618 to 1654.
The dates of office of the various mayors mentioned in this volume, were taken
from the shields hanging in the Town Hall. Many of these, however, are found
to be inaccurate ; and, accordingly, the following corrections have been made from
the revised list printed in the second volume: —
Note 193. John Astley was mayor in 1487-8.
Notes 144, 237, 257, 262, 263, 264. William Austyn in 1459-60, 1467-8, and 1475-6.
„ 279, 295. John Balgey in 1556-7 and 1565-6.
Note 289. John Browne in 1549-50.
,, 261. John Butler in 1465-6.
„ 305. Roger Butler 1494-5.
Notes 322, 325. John Clarke in 1469-70 and 1482-3.
Note 265. William Flower in 1489-90.
„ 179. John Friend was mayor for the second time during the latter part of
1668, in lieu of 1669.
Notes 317, 321, 323, 324, 326. Henry Humphry in 1486-7, 1491-2, 1498-9, and
1507-8.
„ 236, 260, 334. Thomas Hunt in 1456-7, 1464-5, 1472-3, and 1480-1.
Note 346. Richard Johnson in 1544-5.
» !55- William Lynde in 1483-4.
„ 208. John Longvile in 1334-5 and 1335-6
» 335- J°hn Motte in 1526-7 and 1537-8.
„ 290. Henry Neale in 1539-40 and 1552-3.
„ 229. John Parvin in 1509-10 and 1524-5.
„ 190. George Peach in 1836-7 and 1837-8.
Notes 254, 259. William Peryn in 1463-4.
„ 273, 344. John Saxby in 1508-9, 1519-20, and 1531-2.
Note 281. John Saye or Sakes in 1504-5.
„ 275. John Smith in 1511-2.
255. John Walker in 1515-6.
„ 296. Lawrence Washington in 1545-6.
„ 277. Richard Whelar in 1518-9.
„ 297. Richard Wilkinson in 1546-7.
Page 453. Add. At a Council held at Northampton in 1211 or 1212, the Pope's
Legate, Cardinal Pandulph, excommunicated King John.
GLOSSARY.
Abatement, 234, where a person dies
possessed of an inheritance, and be-
fore the heir or the devisee can enter,
a stranger who has no right comes in
and takes possession of the freehold,
he is said to take by abatement.
Abull, 345, able or strong.
Accon reall, 335, an action real, was
one brought to recover freehold
possession of lands, houses, or other
hereditaments.
Accon personal, 335, an action per-
sonal was one brought to recover a
debt or a personal duty or damages
in lieu thereof, or for some injury to
the person or property.
Accoitomed, 308. accustomed.
Acouaunde, 304, a concord, or agree-
ment.
Acquittance of murder, 27, the
amercement or fine leviable on a
district for that offence.
Acyces, affices, 424, assizes, or the
right to set or fix the quantity and
price of articles sold.
Addy^cyon, 305, addition.
Admitte me, 399, betake myself, in
order to seek sanctuary again.
Adoo, 425, to do, or meddle with.
Adrad, 422, frightened, or put in fear.
Afered, 375, instructed, from the Anglo-
Norman ; or perhaps measured or
ascertained.
Afflode, 398, a flood or rising tide.
Affynyte, 373, relationship by marriage.
Ageynft, 393, against.
Ageyns, 233, see Pursue.
Aguyten, 211, acquit.
Aid, 8, an aid, under the feudal law, was
a subsidy granted by the tenant to the
king or to his chief lord for ransoming
his person, for knighting his eldest
son, or for marrying his eldest
daughter. From the French aide.
Aiell, 420, grandfather. From the A iglo-
Norman.
Ainged, 420, adjudged.
All halous, 305, All Hallows' or All
Saints' day, ist November.
All Seyntis, 378, all'the saints.
Alls well, 211, as well.
All Holowen Chirche, 225, All
Saints' Church, standing in the centre
of the town, and much referred to in
the municipal records of the borough.
Allonly, 266, exclusively.
Alonly, 395, only.
Alyned, 209, withdrawn or escaped.
From the French Allonger.
Allman9 421, all manner.
Allman9wife,"20i, all manner of ways.
Als, 418, likewise, or as.
Alweife, 427, always.
Amerceament, 27, a pecuniary fine
inflicted at the discretion or mercy of
a court. From the French merci.
PI. Amercyamentis.
Amercied, 223, fined.
Amendyn, 219, repairing.
Anctecteucly, 423, authoritatively, or
perhaps additionally.
Andag, 419, Anjou.
An hufteng, 420, one hustings.
Annoynace, 394, annoyance.
Anon right, 418, immediately, or at
once.
Anon, 391, then.
A nothe, 337, another.
Anotable, 356, a great.
Anoyable thyngis, 335, things
causing annoyance or damage.
Anempft, 204, concerning.
Anfweren, 417, answer, or be responsible
for.
Apertly, 427, without concealment, or
openly.
Apperith, 339, appeareth.
Appteyilg, 338, appertaining.
Appropurtees, 308, places appro-
priated.
Apetycion, 265, a petition.
Appendaunt, 267, hanging attached by
a cord or strip of parchment.
Apceyned, 232, apprised thereof.
A quyte a geyns, 233 acquit against.
Arected, 313, arrected, 203, imputed.
H H
482
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Areyned, 418, arraigned or indicted.
Aryfe, 377, rise.
Armure, 4z8, armour.
Arrurages, 2I9> 233, arrears.
AiTayd, 232, after it has been tested.
Affayour, 232, assayer or tester.
Afbyd, 330, probably asked.
Aseall, 306, a seal.
Assarts, 21, parts of the forest where
trees or underwood had been de-
stroyed.
Assize of demesne, 16, this was
probably an assize of ancient de-
mesne, where the king's dues were
enforced.
Afflces, 424. Affie, 211, Affis, 344.
see Acyces.
Afoynes, 392, essoins, or excuses for
delaying a suit. Here used for " but
one excuse."
Astelwode, 74, astyl, a thin board or
lath, or piece of wooden log-cleft
for burning.
Aftate, 210, interest.
Atteynt, 402, atteynte, 272, guilty,
tried and convicted.
j 234, attorney or agent.
Auncell, 375. a method of weighing, by
which the fixed weight was at one
end of the beam and the hook or pan
at the other ; the beam was balanced
across the hand of the vendor, and
by changing the place of his hand
he was enabled to weigh diverse
amounts. This auncell weight, being
capable of great deceit, was forbidden
by the statutes 25 Ed. III., stat. 5 c.
9, and 34 Ed. III. c. 5.
Auditoure}, 272, auditors.
Audepeyfe, 376, avoirdupois.
Averreyn, 218, affirm, or prove.
Avife, 269, advice.
Aventours, 210, comers, that is sub-
stitutes.
Availe, avayle, 3o8,awayle, ayayle,
377, profit, or advantage.
Awner, 303, owner.
Axith nO}t, 214, asketh not.
Ayenft, 354, against.
Aylesham, linen of, 60, Aylsham, a
market town in Norfolk, which was,
during the reigns of Edward II. and
III., the chief seat in the country for
the manufacture of linens, then called
" Aylsham Webs."
Ayme of honde, 348, guess of hand.
Ay res, 393, heirs.
Ayenfte, 267, against.
Ayel, 420, see Aiell.
Bailli in fforefterie, 419, the bailiff of
the forest.
Bakftalles, 308, stalls standing in back
places, and thus not paying rent to
the king.
BaftlS, 338, bailiffs.
Bandis, 102, banding together for an
unlawful purpose.
Barellis, 347, barrels.
Barris, 425, the bar of the court.
Barke, 229, bark, used for dying.
Bataile, 420, to make battle or duel, was
to challenge the other party to a
combat, in order to prove a cause.
Baxfte^S, 209, bakers.
Bayly, 377, bailiff.
Bayted, 346, baited. This ordinance
directing that no bull's flesh should
be dressed unless the bull had been
baited, ensured at once a constant
supply of victims for this cruel,
though popular, amusement ; and
also the rendering of the meat less
tough.
Beche, 219, beech.
Bedyng, 377, bidding, or proffering.
Behoneable, 206, behoveable or profit-
able ; fit or proper.
Behouffull, 102, desirable.
Belevyed, 356, be levied, or be raised.
Beme, 331, a beam over which the cloth
was drawn in order to display it.
Benys, 377, beans.
Bere hem, 272, carry or demean them-
selves.
Be twene, 392, between.
Biforwarde, 231, see Here.
Billis, 393, bills or pikes carried by the
infantry, and later by the watchmen.
Blockf , 394, obstructions
Blodefliedis, 393, bloodsheds.
Bocher, 210, butcher. PI. Bocheris,
210.
Bodilye Othe, 305, a corporal oath, by
kissing or laying the hand on the
testament.
Bore pigge, 336, boar.
Borde, 337, board or stall.
Borle, 293, burl, to remove the knots
and uneven parts from wool or cloth.
Bofchellis, 377, bushels.
Botis, 374, boots, or perhaps here
meaning leather, injured by bots,
which were certain kinds of worms
troublesome to horses.
GLOSSARY.
483
Botell Of haye, 343, a bundle of hay.
Bouzte, 232, see Ouzte.
Boyltur of wode, 229, dregs of woad.
Brede for geftys, 402, bread for the
visitors to the inn.
Brede for horfes, 402, a coarse kind
of bread was formerly much used for
feeding horses ; and several of our
old writers give receipts for making
this food.
Bruares, 394, brewers.
Brudtol, 27, 420, pontage, atoll charged
for passing over or under a bridge,
or duty paid for the reparation of
bridges.
Brynnyng, 305, burning.
Bulles fflefihe, 346, the flesh of bulls.
Bultell, 373, bolted or sifted. Bolted
bread was made of sifted wheat,
mixed with rye.
Burgeis, 419, burgesses.
Burgage, 78, tenure proper to cities
and towns, whereby lands or tene-
ments were held of the king or other
lord for a certain yearly rent or
payment
Burgft, 420, borough.
Burled, 332, see Borle.
Bufkes, 418, bushes.
Buflhes, 222, probably a district so
named lying in or near Northampton.
Buttyng, 287, abutting, or bordering on.
Byeilge, 232, neighbourhood.
By, 402, buy.
By hynde, 220, in arrear.
Calidions, 230, cow's heels or sheep's
trotters.
Calif, 201, Calais. Merchants of the
staple of Calais formed an im-
portant corporation in the four-
teenth century.
Calueren, 230, calves.
Capite, in, 21, a holding in chief, or
immediately from the king.
Camcate, 6, a very variable quantity of
land, being anything from 120 to 180
acres, but the general size was
probably 160 acres.
Cantell, 375, see Cautell.
Canone, 229, carrion.
Catell, 225, chattel. PL Catellis,
233
Gate, 208, purchase, this was the term
used in connection with demanding
pie-emption enforceable by heir and
lord. From the old French achate.
Catour , 335, caterer, or one who pro-
vides eatables.
Cautell, 377, an over measure.
Cavmbrigge, 374, Cambridge.
Cavfe, 425, cause.
Chaffar, 39i, Chaffer, 378, Chafer,
347, merchandise, or articles offered
for sale or exchange.
Chaff ren, 391, sell or exchange.
Chapman, 230, a merchant.
Chapmen, petty, 147, small merchants
or pedlars.
Charge giffyng, 397, giving of the
charge.
Chekker, 420, the court of exchequer
of the king, in London.
Chequer, 425, the name of a portion of
the Northampton court.
Cendal, 73, a kind of rich, thin silken
stuff, which was highly esteemed.
Chepyng, 210, market. PL Chep-
ynges, 416.
Chefyilg, making, 305, making choice
of.
Chiders, 393, scolds.
Chief of cendal, 73, ten ells of cendal.
Child wite, 28, this was the penalty
exacted for begetting a child on a
lord's bondwoman.
Chirche3erdis, 419, churchyards.
Ciceftr, 421, Chichester.
Clennes, 230, the wholesomeness.
Clepid, 231, called or named.
Collustringium, 318, collistringium,
a synonym for pillory. See Pylorye.
Colour, 203, pretence or reason.
Colyfion, 311, collusion.
Combell, 375, cumble, a full heaped
measure.
Comenaunt, 228, covenant.
Comburgeis, 265, fellow burgesses.
Coialte, 287, Comens, 102, Cofnoun,
223, Comun, 422, Commu, 391,
Comynalte, 287, commonalty.
Comytte, 103, commit.
Comoned, 303, commented on.
Comprounifion, 305, Compre-
myiryon, 329, consent.
Compleynor, 302, complainant.
Comyng, 299, common.
Comyns, 287, the commons of the
parliament.
Connyng, 393, knowledge.
Coneynes, 210, frauds.
Conuenable, 227, fitting.
H H 2
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Contectes, 268, contentions or contests.
Conuycte, 272, convicted.
Conventicles, 353, conventicles or
assemblies.
Contrybutarye, 353, contributory.
Conceyvyd, 343, apprehended.
Concelyng, 416, concealing.
Concent, 425, consent.
Conably, 266, conveniently.
Coueyne, 228, fraud or deceit.
Confeyleple, 231 counseleth.
Conyng, 266, skilful or clever.
Cookys, 312, cooks.
Cordulean leather, 42, Cordevan
leather was prepared at Cordova, in
Spain. The word is frequently used
by the old dramatists.
Cordyner, 374, shoemaker.
CornettC, 374, conical papers for
holding spices.
Cornysers craft, 245, cordwainer's or
shoemaker's craft.
Coryed, 374, is curried, or perhaps is
carried.
Corrody, 6, an allowance for procuring
meat, drink, and clothing ; or in lieu
thereof the materials themselves.
Co rye, 348, curry.
Coryed, 348, curried
Coriour, 349, currier.
Coftages, 215, charges or outlay.
Cof uacon, 338, conservation.
Cotary, 228, contrary.
Couneable, 228, Couenable, 420,
suitable or agreeable.
Couper, 375, cooper.
Couerlet, 60, a small cover, being the
name of a worsted cloth.
Crafty man, 349, craftsman, or skilled
workman or tradesman.
Creaunibur, 234, Creaunfor, 233,
creditor.
Crie, 234, see Hu.
Croune, 392, crown.
Crouner, 392, coroner. PI. crow-
ners, 339.
Cukkyng Hole, 345, a cucking or
ducking stool was a wooden engine,
wherein the offender was secured,
and then lowered into a river or
pond.
There is no cucking stool now
in existence in this county.
Cuntre, 419, the inhabitants of the
country, who were raised to follow
the hue and cry.
Cuppe Choppet, 373, a cup or measure
that is cut down in order that it should
hold less.
Curtatfy of Jnglond, 208, 217, by the
courtesy of England, a man who has
married a woman possessed of land
of inheritance by whom he has had a
living child capable of inheriting the
land shall keep the land for his life,
after the death of his wife.
DagOUns, 397, dagons or blankets.
Dampne, 424, condemn, or mutilate.
Darrer, 376, dearer.
Defailt}, 356, defaults.
Defayled, 420, failed.
Defenlable, 227, able to defend himself.
Deifter, 210, dyers.
Demeanours, 425, conduct.
Denied, 373, judged. From the Anglo-
Saxon.
Demene as of freehold, 287, demesne
as of freehold.
Demenyng, 102, ruling.
Departed, 271, divided or parted.
Dempuyte, 339, judgment or condem-
nation.
Den}eyn, 236, denizen or one possessing
the franchise of the town.
Deptyn, 221, by retail or in parcels.
Deptyng, 417, between, or the border
line.
Deris ledder, 348, deer skin.
Derthe, derthen, 224, derllbn, 264,
make scarce, and therefore dear.
Derthyng, 227, making dear.
Detf9, 333, dozen.
Detryment, 427, detriment.
Dever, 270, endeavour.
Devoires, 207, devoure, 394, duty.
Dewe, 376, due or proper.
d:i, 332, half
Diffame, 272, diffauneth, 303, defame
or slander.
Dight, deyne, 311, dress or prepare.
Dikes, 418, ditches.
Discencions, 101, dissensions.
Difcerte, 296, deceit.
Difclaunder, 272, difclaundre, 305,
difclaimdreth, 303, slander.
Discorde}, 101, discords.
Dimerintofoun, 219, disinheriting.
Diflate, 304, desolate.
Difpended, 269, expended.
GLOSSARY
485
Difpfonement, 236, difponament,
391, dispossession.
D is reformer, 420, justify.
Distryuen, 232, destroy.
Dome, 373, see Holy.
Don, 219, cause.
Dower, 208, 215, the portion which a
widow has for her life after her hus-
band's death of the lands or tene-
ments of which he was solely seized,
and which any possible child of hers
could inherit.
Dowen, 215, endow or give dower to.
Draden, 416, dreaded.
Draparry, 397, drapery.
Drap, 349, draper.
Drawen, 421, serve.
Dueed, 299, due.
Duel, 27, see Bataile.
Dunolm, 423, Durham.
Dufayn, 210, dufayne 226, the de-
cennary or tithing.
JJuleyner, 226, doziner or decimer, was
one who had the oversight of the
Friburgh, or Tithing, and was
responsible for the maintenance of
the king's peace.
Duufayn, 392, see Denzeyn.
Dyght, 311, dress or prepare.
Dykekyngf, 209, ditches.
Dyimytfed, 427, dismissed.
Dyvine f9uice, 393, divine service.
Du3ynge, dy3ing, 229, dying.
Ebbe, 398, an ebb or falling tide.
Efecked, 311, affected.
EleccioriS, 102, elections.
Ellys, 358, else.
Elne, 229, ell, equal to i£ yards.
Emporeth, 377, impoverished.
Embrac ies, 203, embraceries were
attempts to corruptly influence a jury
or prevent the course of justice.
Embafeled, 303, embezzled or stolen.
Enabeled, 303, made capable, or cer-
tified.
Enchefoned, 418, chastened or punished.
Encreceignyng, 203, increase.
Ende, at, 293, termination of the
matter in difference.
Endentures, 216, indentures, are a
species of deeds.
Enditen, 416 indict, or charge.
Enqueftes, 416, inquests
Enplede, 226, implede, or bring a suit
against.
Enprented, 306, engraved.
Enlweren, 417, answer, or be liable for.
Enfealed, 373, sealed, or stamped.
Enfemble, 356, assemble.
Enferche, 207, search.
Enuiron, 232, the places round.
Enveled, 373, in calf.
Enqueraunce, 393, inquirv.
rLrneft, 210, money paid to bind the
contract
Erytage, 208, inheritance.
Escheator, 77, the officer who observed
and certified the king's escheats, or
lands, or other profits coming to the
king by way of forfeiture or failure
of heirs. PI. Efchetoures, 423.
Essoiners, 241, persons who excused
themselves from attending a sum-
mons, or prosecuting a suit, or
attending a court.
Efchewyng, 304, eschewing.
ElToyne, 236, see Afoynes.
Eulaftyng, 265 everlasting.
Euyche, 202, euychone, 396, every-
one.
Evell, 374, badly.
Ev , 102, ever.
Evyll rule, 394, evil rule.
Execucion, 423, execution.
Expeditating, 53, expeditating dogs,
was removing the balls of their fore-
feet, in order to prevent them from
running game.
Eyr, ey, 233, higher.
Eyren, 225, eggs.
Eyre, 208, 146, Justices in Eyre, those
who in ancient times were commis-
sioned to hear the pleas of the
crown in divers places. PI- Eyres,
391-
fface, 374, tanning, or liquor.
Fadir, 391, father.
Faggis, 303, bundles.
Falce, 374, false.
Farm, 8, rent, or returns.
Fattf, fyde, 352, side of the vat.
ffawty, 396, faulty.
ffealoihip, 336, fellowship or craft.
Feffed, 232, enfeoffed, or possessed.
ffelles, 209, skins.
ffeloun, 398, felon.
Fermed, 422, farmed, or paid rent for.
Feoffermours, 309, ffermour, 287,
farmers, or those who paid rent.
486
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
fferrours, 375, ironworkers, or black-
smiths.
ffeftured, 424, festered.
Fete, 345, feet
ffeyres, 416, fairs.
Flaye, 270, a slay, or instrument be-
longing to a weaver's loom.
Flecher, 353, flesher or butcher. PL
fflefchewers.
ffleflhis, 424, flesh.
Flouryng, 203, flourishing.
ffloteys, 378, possibly this was a term
for water.
ffoffet, 375, forfeit.
Forenne, 392, foreign person, or one
coming from the country or another
town. PL Foreynes, 422.
Foreyn chef, 417, franchise
Foreyn holdynges, 421, out holdings,
or lands and tenements not within the
town.
Forfeytur, 422, punishment by fine or
forfeiture.
Forncloled, 218, closed.
Forn don, 232, misdone.
For Iwere, 389, forswear or abjure.
Foreftallers, 70, fforftallers, 376,
those who bought any merchandise
as it was coming to a market or fair,
with intent to sell the same again at
a higher price.
Forftall, 346, buy as a forestalled
For fwome, 339, forsworn, or perjured.
Forty dales, 217, the time of quaran-
tine.
Forto feyne, 215, for to say.
ffrays, 397, affray, a skirmish or fighting
between two or more. PI. ffraies,
393-
Franke manage, 217, was where a
man seized of lands in fee simple
gave them with his daughter, &c., to
another in marriage, to be held by
them and their heirs free of any
service till the fourth degree of
consanquinity was passed.
Fraternyte of the trynnyte, 332,
Fraternity of the Trinity. Possibly
the chapel of the Trinity at Kings-
thorpe.
F9uncheflS, 338, privileges.
Fraunc, 350, France.
Fremes, 274, strangers.
Fre cure, prechers, 330, the Domini-
cans or Black Friars. See Vol. II.,
p. 521.
ffresh fors, 211, fresh force. Where
one man dispossessed another of
property the dispossessed could by
a speedy remedy be restored to
possession again, leaving the right
to be tried afterwards.
ffrefton, frefton, 219, freestone.
ffullerfcrafte, 291. the fuller's craft.
See Vol. II., p. 288.
Fulliche, 228, fullyk, 264, fully.
Fynden, 215, fyde, 305, find.
ffyftene, 274, fifteen.
ffeyrf , 222, fairs.
Fyrmall, 313, firm, or perhaps formal.
Gaderer, 337, gatherer, or purchaser.
Gaderyng, 231 addition.
Gayne, 394, convenient, or fit.
Garbeled, 348, examined, or picked
over ; a garbeller was one appointed
to examine spices and find out the
impurities in them.
Gafkoyn, 377, Gascony.
Gawged, 347, gauged.
Gentillf, 207, gentlemen.
(jremers, 211, hoards, or garners.
G neryng, 231, garnering, or hoarding.
Getys ledder, 348, goat skin.
Giftes, 217, dispositions.
Gleffis, 393, knives.
Gobbetf , 373 morsels, or small pieces.
Gote, 230, goat.
Gotter, 221, gutter.
Gounaunce}, 332, gounaunce, 102,
government.
Goyth, 346, price, rate, or cost.
Gree, 417, agreement or settlement.
Geftys, 402, guests.
Grenoflycke, 232, grievously.
Grete, 210, 229, grievance.
Grevene, 220, grieve.
Greywerk, 60, badger skin.
Gruchyng, 270, grudging.
GreyngS, 394, grains.
Grutte, 229, dregs.
Guyn3eyn, 417, quinza'in or fifteenth
day, beinsf a fortnight.
Gyldwit}, 420, see Childwite.
Gynnes, 378, machines for catching
fish.
Gyfarnyes, 418, gisarmes; these were
bills or battle axes.
Hable, 207, able or strong.
Habundaunt, 202, abundant.
GLOSSARY.
487
Haburion, 418, habergeon, a coat of
mail, or breast plate.
Habylite, 292, sufficiency.
Halfendeth, 428, half-part.
Hal}?e, 231, helpeth, or assisteth.
Halydome, 225, holy dome, or final
judgment. From the Anglo-Saxon
Halig dom. Also our blessed Lady,
from Halig dame.
Hanaper, 71, the king's private trea-
sury, which was kept by the clerk of
the hanaper, whose duty it was to
receive moneys due to the king for
charters, letters, &c.
Handild, 354, handled, or used.
Happ, 103, happen.
Harbernyn, 210, harboureth.
Harneys, 234, armour.
Harren, 222, are.
Haunted, 203, practised.
Hatte of jren, 418, helmet.
Haunte, 230, use, or frequent.
Havenes, 420, havens.
Haveour, 101, behaviour.
Hedertowarde, 422, hitherto.
Hedde, 345, head. PL Hede}, 347,
hedys, 230.
Hedynesse, 102, head-strong ways or
conduct.
Hees, 341, lees, or lose
HeggCS, 221, 418, hedges.
Heir, 351, higher. See Eyr.
Hem mown, 420, they may.
Hepe, 377, heap.
Her, used throughout the Liber quite
indiscriminately for he, she, him, her,
his, hers, or theirs.
Herberged, 220, let out to occupants or
tenants. From the Teutonic Her-
berge.
Herburgh, 230, herberow, 417,
harbour or lodge.
Herberiour, 402, lodging-house keeper.
PI. Herborowes, 393, her-
foiours, 402.
Here biforwarde, 231, henceforward.
Heresgive, 28, the meaning of this
word is not certainly known, but it
was probably a compulsory new year's
gift to the sovereign.
Herkeners under mennys wyn-
dows, 393, eaves droppers.
Hes, 418, ease.
High pace, 308, high place.
Hilliers, 329, thatchers or tilers. A
hillier is one who conceals or covers.
Hobles, 102, hobbles or difficulties.
Hole toun, 417, an entire township
that was not a city or borough.
Hollyche, 234, wholly.
Hollbme, 373, wholesome.
Hole, 269, complete.
Holl, 232, together.
Holy dome, 373, see Halydome.
Homelbkyns, 393, breakings of uome-
soken, or invading the freedom every
man has in his own house.
Honde, 348, bond, 421, hand. PI.
Hondes, 227.
Honthes, 418, hue and cry.
Honeable, 206, fit.5<?^Behoneable, 206.
Home blowe, 397, horns blown to
summon assistance.
Homes, 348, probably measures made
of horn.
Hounde} ledder, 348, dog skin.
Horiebred, 334, see Brede for horses.
Horfe ledder, 348, horse hide.
Hoftiller, 402, host, or inn-keeper.
Hoftellage, 27, the compelling of any
innkeeper, tenant, or other person,
without payment, to lodge or enter-
tain another.
Hu and crie, 234, the old common law
process of pursuing with horn and
voice all felons. Here used only
to give public notice of an inter-
ference with a freehold.
Hundreddes, 416, hundreds.
Hufteng, 420, hustings, 27, the local
court held before the reeve or mayor
of the town.
Huftis, 231, probably usages.
Hufwifes cloth, 147, household stuff,
such as house linen.
Huxfter, 209, a retail dealer, who gene-
rally carried his wares on his back.
Hydirmuke, 225, perhaps meaning
behind, or out of the market.
Hydynges, 225, hidden, or covered
places.
Hye weyes, 418, high roads.
Hyllyars, 354, see Hilliers.
Hyren, 210, hire.
like, 417, each.
like mene, 211, same mesne or mes-
suage.
Impiall, 229, imperial.
Indifferently miniftred, 203, fairly
or impartially administered.
InCOnuenienC}, 304, inconveniencies.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Indecrece, 270, in decrease.
Indyfferent, 392, equal, or impartial.
Ineny, 427, in any.
Infangthef, 47, the liberty granted to
the lord of a manor to judge thieves
taken within his manor.
Inftitaunt£, 102, inhabitants.
Intromit, 78, intromytte, 425, in-
trude.
Intestate, 47, without having made a
will.
Inteyn teryng, 294, in teyntering or
stretching. See Teyntor.
Intirifion, 234, intrusion, almost the
same as "abatement" (which see),
but an intrusion is to the prejudice
of one who takes in remainder or
reversion.
Inwarde, 375, secretly.
Inwardf, 345, Jnwardis, 335, in-
ternal portions.
Jorneyman, 270, one working by the
day with another. From the French
Journee. PI Jorneymen.
Jllftlfiable, 391, conformable to justice;
or, perhaps, giving no cause of offence.
J Solde, 375, the j or i is simply an
augment to the word sold.
Jd, 377. one penny.
Jmplede, 341, see Enplede.
Jndented, 265, the writing was in
duplicate on one piece of paper or
parchment cut between the two in an
indented line, so that the two could
be identified.
Jnfangenthef, 421, see Infangthef.
Jnfynytly, 314, perpetually.
Jnioye, 341, enjoy.
Joberty, 354, jeopardy or peril.
Juftic, 423, justices.
Karye, 310, carry.
Kate, 213, see Gate.
Kingsbroth, 62, the king's booth, a
booth erected in fair time for the use
of the king's representative.
Knyfe, 418, knife, or sword.
Knyzte, 227, knight.
Konnyng, 392, see Connyng.
Kuttyng, 374, cutting.
Kylderkyn, 374, kilderkin.
Kyne, 214, kyng, kynne, 215, kin.
Kynred, 373, blood relationship.
Kynges mareflhall, 420, the king's
officer. See Livery.
Kyteftallis, 395, perhaps king's stalls.
Ladde, 422, conducted.
Lady lighte, 299, the light of our
Lady, or the Virgin Mary.
Laiie, 418, less.
Lastage, 27, laftage, 42, a duty paid
for ware sold by the last, as herrings,
pitch, &c.
Latten, 224. let.
Latyng, 203, letting.
Lawing, 53, see Expeditating.
Lay to wed, 208, 218, put to pledge
or mortgage.
Ledder, 348, leather.
Lede, 227, carry or drive.
Leeful, 103. lawful.
Lees, 350. leys, 351, lose.
Leide, 231, laid.
Lenger, 397, longer.
Lenton, 308, Lent.
Lefen, 228, loose.
Lres, 206, letters.
Lett, 393. 397, delay.
Lette, 291, letton, 220, hinder.
Lettis, 354, leetis, 393, courts leet.
Lefeyn, 422, lose.
Lettis for Scottis, 344, see Scottis.
Leue, 210, loan.
Levewe, 395, levy.
Lewde, 425, lewd.
Leyum, 422, Lezan.
Leys, 351, lose.
Ll, 291, pounds. From the Latin Librae.
Llt)te, 270, liberty.
Liefull, 308, lawful.
Lightis, 335, lights.
Liker, 217, like.
Livery of the marshall, 27, by
authority of the marshal, an officer of
the royal household whose duty it
was to provide lodgings for the
sovereign and his retinue.
Lofe, 394, love.
Lomes, 299, looms
Lone, 227, advance, or loan.
Longis, 335, lungs.
Lorn, 232, lost, From the German
" verloren."
Loot and Scotte, 220, lott and
skot, 353, those holding at Lot and
Scot were those who paid certain
general contributions.
Lordie Dakers, 354, Lord Dacre.
GLOSSARY.
489
Lovyng, 377, enhancing.
Luker, 377, pecuniary gain.
Lumbard, 231, used here for a banker,
or producer of coins. This word was
derived from Lombardy, whence the
early Italian bankers came.
Lymme, 373, limb.
Lytitees, 265, Irbties, 338, liberties.
Lyffe, 373, life.
Lynyn, 348, linen.
Lyfte, 358, please.
Lyter, 222, a litter or brood of young
animals.
Lyuey, 273, privilege, also livery or
uniform. PL Lyvereys, 265.
Ly3te, 271, the light.
MalhTyth, 354, maligneth.
Man , 102, manner.
Manllawhters, 416, manslaughters.
Manucaptors, 87, those who were
sureties, for the appearance of one
accused, on his being delivered into
their custody, instead of his remaining
in prison.
Mark, 8, a coin worth thirteen shillings
and fourpence.
Martir, 305, martyr.
M , 423, memorandum.
Meane, 310, meayn, 354, way or
means.
Mede, 207, reward.
Medefully, 266, deservedly.
Melynn, 219, a species of scapolite,
being a cheap kind of stone.
Merket, 425, market. PL Mercatis,
424.
Melell hogges, 373, a measel was a
leper. The term is here used for
diseased or measly hogs.
Mesurys, 345 measures.
Menuiyng, 269, diminishing.
Mercyment, 266, fine. See Amercea-
ment. PL Mercymentis, 274.
Merueled, 303, marvelled. From the
Anglo-Norman.
Mefe, 287, messuage.
Minifters, 26, servants.
Mifkenning, 27, a mistake in the plea,
for which a fine had to be paid.
Milbehavyngf , 425, misbehaviours.
Moneyers, 13, the officials of the king
who had charge of the mint.
Moyte, 428, moiety.
Monyflhhed, 221, admonished.
Mortf, 336, dead.
Moun not, 220, nor may.
Muckhillf, 394, heaps of manure.
Murtheryng, 418, murder.
Mydis, 287, middle.
Myll horfe, 222, the horse kept to
work a mill.
Myllyng, 294, milling.
Mynyfters, 353, servants.
Myfkennyng, 229, see Miskenning.
Mys rule, 268, misrule.
Nat, 423, not.
Nekkys, 358, necks, or risk.
Nete, 230, cattle of the bovine species.
Netez ledder, 348, bovine leather.
Nightis tyme, 398, night time.
Norices, 209, nurses. Perhaps here
the word means apprentices.
Not paled, 233, nought be paid.
NoU3t, 416, naught, or never.
Noyeiauce, 209, annoyance, or nuisance.
Noyfed, 271, rumoured.
N fiber, 350, number.
Nyght walkers, 393, those wandering
about at night with evil designs.
Ot>, 226, one half-penny.
Obediens, 352, obefauns, 352,
obedient.
Occupy, 375, use.
Octaues, 423, the eighth day after the
feast.
On queftlS, 274, on inquests or en-
quiries.
On, 221, OOn, 287, one.
Onlyche, 229, oonly, 423, only.
Ony, 307, any.
On feafoned, 373, unseasoned.
Oonas, 265, one as.
Ooft, Ofte, 230, host, or landlord.
Ootes, 374, oats.
Or, 331, before.
Ordeigned, 402, ordained.
Ordeyne, 311, order.
Os, 227, as.
Ossellum, 320, pile.
Oftry, 374, Oftery, 358, hostelry.
Othes, 416, oaths.
Of 307, Oj>er, 223, other.
Other, 227, another.
OiEh, 214, oath.
Otemele, 347, oatmeal.
Ou, 331, over.
Ou fee, 356, oversee or superintend.
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Outaken, 224, overtaken, or found out.
Oil werkis, 206, our works.
Ouzte bouzte, 232, aught bought.
Oute take, 420, owte take, 219,
except.
Owith, 402, ought.
Owre, 376, hour.
Owpenle, 335) openly
Owte, 343, ought.
Owte boron, 232, aught borne.
Owte crye, 397, outcry.
Owte warde, 375, openly.
Pchemyn, 229, parchment.
Pcialite, 207, partiality.
Palfrey, 234, a saddle horse.
Panis dominicus, 321, simnel bread
of the finest flour, so called from the
effigy of our Saviour impressed
thereon.
Panis franciscus, 321, French bread
or rolls.
Parell, 397) peril.
Palch, 269, Easter.
Patent letters, 421 open letters or
writings.
Pawment, 335, pavement.
Peas, 218, pease, 213, peace.
Peltes, 222, peltis, 229, skins.
Peny, 274, penny, 228, a penny, or
token. PL Penys, 210, penyes,
230.
Pepull, 305, people.
Pel, 203, pell, 313, peril. PI. Perils,
269
Pilous, 373, perilous.
P9ile, 351, price.
Pifchyng, 373, perishing.
Piuree, piurie, 339, perjury.
P9iudice, 308, prejudice.
Pmyt, 428, permit.
P^petuall, 424, perpetuity.
Ppetually, 423, perpetually.
Pfon, 233, person. PI. Pibnes, 102.
Perfonnes reftiant, 203, resident
persons.
P9fuacon, 338, settled opinion.
Pefen, 223, pefyn, 377, peas.
Peyne, 417, penalty.
Peyes, 312, pies.
Pie Powder, Court of, 134, 146, a
court held in the market where those
who came with "dusty feet" could
obtain immediate justice. 'Mi',^"
Pleas of out holdings, 26, pleas
concerning lands or tenements lying
outside the borough.
Plees, 214, 394, courts.
Pleeie, 392, pleas.
Plete, 270, implead.
Pleyiien, 226, complain
Pleyneth, 226, complaineth.
Pleyne courte, 215, open court, or
perhaps full court.
Pleyn plees 216, pleen pleez, 220,
open or full court.
Pleyn, 356, full.
Pleynt, 228, complaint.
Pleyntyfe, 392, plaintiff.
Pockey, 336, distempered.
Podell, 418, puddle or pool.
Poeer, 417, poorer.
Politick, 102, civil or good mannered.
Ponyffhe, 265, punish.
Portelbken, 27, 420, the liberties of the
town outside the walls.
Porters, 231, measures, probably the
length of the white rod borne by
certain officials, called porters.
Poryng in, 376, impoverishing.
Poyntes, 394, points.
P9cyncte, 429, prefynke, 379, precinct.
P^iudice, 427, prejudice.
P miifes, 203, offences before written.
P fernacori, 202, preservation.
P^sident, 204. precedent.
Prefte, 207, earnest money given to a
soldier when he was impressed.
P fume, 427, presume.
Prevely, 376, secretly.
Prime, 209, pryme, 225, p'me, 228,
the hour of six o'clock in the morning,
being the second of the seven canoni-
cal hours
P'OUrs, 421, priors.
Prifid, 427, comprised.
P^e, 211, a townsman, or person of the
neighbourhood. PI. p'uez, 209.
Pfi3te, 270, pfyte, 225, profit.
Pgenitours, 423, pgenytores, 265,
progenitors, or ancestors.
Ppur, 266, own.
Ppur and iingler, 308, own and
~ singular.
Ppre heritage, 217, own inheritance.
Profe, 429, pve, 304, 333, proof.
GLOSSARY.
491
Puandyr, 346, provender.
Puofterie, 421, provostery or provost-
ship.
Pven, 234, proved.
PU> 393. y°u-
Pullett, 376, a pullet or young hen.
Punicion, 203, punishment.
Punych, 395, punish.
Purchale, 209, process or action.
Purchased, 213, pursued.
Purchases, 213, this probably means
the absolute purchase of the various
charters by the town.
Purpresture, 23, a building or inclosure
made to the prejudice of the king.
Purfue his fee ageyns, 233, hold his
fee directly from.
Purviaunce, 225, provision.
Putred, 374, putrid.
PuttO, 267, put to, or actually placed on
the writing itself.
PuttO, 397, put to or placed to sale.
Purfute, 417, jurisdiction.
Pvte, 394, put.
Pylory, 373, an engine made of wood to
confine the head, and sometimes the
hands, of an offender, and thus ex-
pose him to public view. There is
no existing pillory in this county,
though its use is frequently referred to
in old local records.
Pypes, 375, pipes.
Qd, 375, a farthing.
Quatage, 299, quarterly due ; the pay-
ment was, however, only made yearly
at Easter, so probably quarterage
signified a payment irrespective of
date. PI. Quar?ages, 266.
>ueme, 269, satisfy.
•ueyntile, 232 ingenious means.
ft, 287 inquiry.
>ueftis, 274, suits.
>uietanc£, 423, quittance.
Juyte, 225, quit, or free, or released.
Ranced leddur, 374, musty leather.
Rafor 375, ralid, 377, razed, measures
razed or levelled.
Rawe ledder, badly tanned leather.
Ray, 231, a kind of striped cloth. PI.
Rayes, 229.
Rechate, 375. re-cook, or warm a second
time.
ReCOrfe, 308, recourse.
ReCVUeron, 214, recover.
Recytors, 416, receivers of the mis-
doers.
Reeve, 27, the most important officer in
the town, who presided at the court
of hustings, and collected the king's
dues.
Regrater, 228, regratour, 376, one
who bought in order to sell again in
the same market, fair, or place. PI.
Regrateris, 210.
Reignyng, 305, reigning, or common.
Re lie, 424, raise,
Rejolfe, 235, enjoy.
Rekkeleichipe, 416, recklessness.
Relacion, 396, relation or rehearsal.
Relacon, 355, complaint.
Reles, 225, release.
Renne, 203, run.
Re re, 228, raise, or take.
Rered, 270, raised.
Relacion, 396, recital.
Rennyth, 339, runneth.
Replenyfhed, 215, redeemed or re-
pleved.
Repacion, reparacion, 287, repara-
tion.
Retfeyted, 224, received.
Relfeyneth, 417, receiveth.
Reibnabliche, 209, reasonably.
Reue, 420, see Reeve.
Re we, 224, row.
Right wifly, 421, righteously.
Roberys, 418, robberies.
Roby Whoodf Court, 354, Robin
Hood's court, a common term for
an unjust court, or one presided over
by a robber.
Rode, 270, rood, a cross, or crucifix.
Rongen, 209, rung.
Rotyn, 424, rotten.
Royotoule, 313, riotous.
Runnen, right over, 417, a due in
Sadde, 102, serious.
Sadnes, 101, seriousness.
Soc, 4, right, liberty, privilege, or
dominion.
Socage, 78, tenure of lands by any
certain and determinate service.
Sadill, 377, saddle.
Sad rule, 203, serious, or discrete rule,
Sofferen, 209, suffer.
492
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS
Salett, 418, a light helmet.
Saye, 232, assay.
Sayne, 219, see With.
Saa, 421, Salisbury.
Scnone, 374, shoes.
Sclaunder, 375, slander.
Scotale, 28. When any officer of the
forest keeps an alehouse within the
forest, by colour of his office, and
causes men to come to his house,
and there spend their money for fear
of his displeasure, it is called Scotale.
The word is used in the charter of
the forest.
Sctaliers, 329, sklaters, 354, slaters.
Scotte, 220, see Loot.
Scottis, lettis for, 354, this probably
alludes to the king's Scottish levies,
for during the reign of Henry VIII.
the wars in Scotland were proceeding.
Seefyng, 235, seisin, or possession.
Sealed yn, 347, fastened up.
Sealed, 345, sealed or stamped
Sellynges, 221, fine or alienation.
Sendry, 103, different.
S9aunt, 266, sergeant.
S9uaunt, 270, servant. PI S auntis,
336, Puntf, 334.
S'chere, 350, seacher. PI. serchers,
305-
S iaunt, 227, sergeant.
S uice, 219, service.
S teyn, 221, certain, or fixed.
Seylbne, 215, seizen.
Semble, 220, assembly.
Sette, 345, put in good condition.
Seu^aunce, 273, severance, or difference.
Sewe, 335, sue.
Sewen, 418, follow.
Seyn, 220, see With.
Seyne, 210, say, or tell.
Shamellis, 424, shambles.
Shepis ledder, 348, sheep skins.
Sheryng, 356, shearing, or cutting.
Shete, 375, shut.
Sherman, 356, a shearer of cloth. See
Vol. II., p. 288.
Shermanfcraft, 356, cloth shearer's
craft.
Sherreues, 419, shrevifff, 423,
sheriffs.
Shitte, 417, shut.
Sholn, 420, shall.
Shouis payre, 374, pair of shoes.
Sight, 419, view.
Sigmanuell, 428, the marks or signa-
tures made by the mayor and his
brethren with their own hands.
Siker, 217, otherwise; semble ; from
same root as scindo, scipors, scythe,
and suggesting separation or diversity.
It may mean sure, and be a mere
pleonasm, or it may mean that there
may be security or safety. See
^ ^Sikernefs, p. 233.
Sjlue, 216, silver.
Siluer, 215, silver, being the purchase
money.
Sikernelie, 233, security.
Sith, 274, then.
Sithe, 265, since.
Simnel bread, 321, a kind of rich cake,
generally made in a three-cornered
form.
Sklaters, 354, slaters.
Skot, 353, scot, an assessment to a con-
tribution.
Slee, 335, slay.
Slownes, 416, sloth.
Soche, 393, such.
Sodeynly, 417. suddenly.
Sodeyndeth, 392, sudden death.
Solaunder, 265, discredit.
SomoinS, 421, summons.
Sonday dyners, 393, Sunday diners.
Sotelte, 377- sotiltie, 310, subtilty.
Sethyng, 346, boiling.
Sothe, 210, sothenefle, 229, truth-
fully, or plainly.
Sope, 347, soap.
Sowgt, 354, sought.
Speally, 202, especially.
Spial, 204, special.
Spialite, 203, particulars.
Spual, 102, spiritual.
Spuell, 287, spiritual.
Spurge, 347, clarify.
Spere, 418, spear.
Stallage, 209, rent paid for stalls.
Stavis, 393, staves.
Stede, 273, place. PI. Stedis, 209.
Stente. 231, stand.
S?ling£, 426, current money. From
the word Easterlings, being the name
of those people in the east parts of
Germany who were skilled in fining
gold and silver.
Stiward, 377, steward (of the town).
Stywarde, 375, the king's steward of
the household, formerly an important
officer.
GLOSSARY.
493
Stokefiih, 308, salt fish.
Stokkes, 209, wooden posts.
Stokkes, 346, stocks, a wooden engine,
used to confine the legs of offenders,
for the securing of disorderly persons ;
and also for punishment under divers
statutes.
Stocks still exist at the following
villages in this county :— Apethorpe,
Eydon, Gretton, King's Sutton, Little
Houghton, and Wicken.
Stones, 348, probably this means actual
stones, and not weights of fourteen
pounds.
Straunge, 209, country folk, or folk
from other towns.
Stynkkyng, 229, offensive.
Stylly, 398, quietly.
Stynten, 417, be free.
Subbarbys, 266, suburbs.
Subv cion, 102, subversion.
Suerte, 298, surety.
Suer warde, 203, sure keeping, or gaol.
Sutfemy fleflh, 230, suimy, 230, flesh
corrupted with blood or matter.
Sufferen in wile, 407, suffer in such
manner.
Sumpter horses, 6, a horse for
carrying furniture or other articles.
Surceile, 202, refrain from.
Surmettyng, 271, surmyttyng, 303,
complaint or charge.
Sufimy, 336, see Suffemy.
Sulfpecioufe, 398, suspicious.
Suyng, 265, following.
Swelewe, 221, sewer, or drain, or
chimney.
Swte, 234, suit.
Swerd, swirde, 418, sword. PI.
Swyrdes, 418, swyrdis, 393.
Syche, 417, such.
Synes, 378, signs.
Syflfe, 393, assize.
Syied, 345, assized.
Tachementis, 393, persons or things
attached, or in custody.
Tale, 333, reckoning.
Tannhillis, 396, tan hills.
Tapefter, 222, a maker of tapestry,
here used for a working man gene-
rally.
Tawe, 349, to curry, dress, or make
supple.
Tellagies, 353, tallages or assessments.
Tempall, 102, temporal.
Tent, 287, tenement. PI. Tefitis.
J erme, 220, term of years, or a lease.
T me, 233, time.
Testate, 47, teftat, 422, having made
a will.
TeyntOF, 332, a taintor was a fixed
stretcher used by fullers for stretching
cloth. PI. Teyntoris. 332. See
Vol. II., p. 218.
Tha, 215, than.
Thabbpt, 302, the abbot.
Thaduis, 207, thadvyse, 102, the
advice.
Thassent, 425, the assent.
Thenhabitauntf, 306, the inhabitants.
Thorow, thorou}, 419, through.
Thretyth, 354, threateneth.
Thorough, 228, by.
Thrummys, 348, thrums, extremities
of the weaver's warp.
Thyrndall, 373, thinned down.
Till, 398, to.
Tobes, 394, tubs.
Toll, 27, tolle, 42, sum paid for passing
over roads or bridges, entering certain
boroughs, or exposing wares for sale.
Tolle diffil, 375, a dish used by a
miller for taking a certain amount of
the corn ground by him as payment.
Tombrell, 373, see Cukking stool.
Torchis, 305, torches.
Torchettf , 305, little torches.
Tonne, 343, ton.
Tounes chepyngf, 418, market towns-
Travell, 231, work.
Trefoure, 392, treasure trove.
Treten, 421, treat, or use.
Trewe, 348, see Berne.
Treyte, 325, probably fine wheaten
flour.
Tronage, 210, the right of weighing
goods.
Troned, 226, weighed.
Troner, 226, the officer responsible for
weighing goods.
Tweyn, 298, tweyne, 421, two.
Tymbra, 329, a certain number of skins,
forming a bundle.
Tyng, 305, see Vnfit tyng.
Tyngtur, 229, tincture or colour.
Typlynge howfys, 393, drinking
houses.
Typler, 352, the officer appointed to
taste the beer, or perhaps the drinker
or customer.
494
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Tytulys of Ryght, 234, documents
of title, or title deeds.
Ty3te, 343, tight. Probably meaning a
ton closely pressed and packed.
Utas, 122, the seventh day after the
feast.
Ut flip, 335, as above.
Valenc, 422, Valence.
Vayle, 424, advantage. PI. Vailes,
424.
Verray, 298, verry, 402, very, 423,
true
Veyne, 221, visne or neighbourhood.
See Vernals inquest. See Vol. II.,
P- 135-
Vicious, 424, bad.
Visuer, 221, Viewer.
Vnderwode, 418, underwood.
Vnderuemyng, 229, undermining.
Vnfit tyng, 305, unfitting.
Vniufale, 334, vniufall, 310, universal.
Vnteftat, 422, intestate, or without
leaving a will.
VoiSO, 103, voice, or vote.
Volour, 375, value.
Voyde, 232, quit, or depart from.
Voyden, 222, avoid.
Vpland, tounes of, 419, probably
inland or country towns.
Vfeed, 423, used.
Vyrkyn, 347, firkin, a vessel holding
eight or nine gallons.
Vytell, 335, victual.
Waken, 227, keep watch.
Waltes, 374, welts.
Warde, 218, 398, prison or gaol.
Warkeman, 227, workman.
Warke in greate, 355, work in
quantity, and not by the day.
Warpe, 397, warp or thread running
lengthwise in the loom.
Water, 345, mix.
Wale, 353, was.
Waften, 232, waste.
Wastes, 21, see Assarts.
Wewen, 531, weave.
Webfters, 231, webfteris, 211, cloth
workers.
Wedde, 218, mortgage, or pledge. PL
weddes, weddis, 420.
Weiffe, 397, weave.
Weiverltrafte, 299, weaver's craft.
Wenyth, 226, weeneth, or thinks.
Wepenes, 418, weapons.
Weftfn, 421, Westminster.
Wete, 373, witt, 203, wit, or know.
Wejminge pigf , 341, sucking pigs.
Weu, 331, weaver. PL Weuez, 348.
Weyztis, 375, weights.
Whete, 374, wheat.
White, 12, money paid into the king's
exchequer was tested by being
melted, and it was then said to be
blanched or white. Perhaps here it
is only meant, that the payment was
in white money or silver, and not in
kind, such as grain.
Whittawer, 349, a currier of white
leather.
Wile awarte, 203, wise administration
or government.
With Sitte, 223, disobey.
Wite, 391, say.
Wite ye, 419, know ye.
With Jnne, 423, within.
W^owtyn, 216, without.
With feyn, 220, gainsay.
Witte howe, 228, knows how.
Wittnelie seid, 233, witnessed.
Worthi, 422, commendable.
Wod, 229, wode, 418, woad,a blue dye
^Vodours, 210, sellers of woad.
Wofe, 397, woof, or thread, crossing the
warp in the loom.
Woke, 417, week.
Wollen, 348, woollen.
Worme, 229, perhaps wormwood.
Worfe ende, 354, wrong end.
Writ dormond, 353, a writ dormant,
was one that was not to be executed
for a certain time.
W^Ught, 330, without.
Wyrche, 271, work.
Wylnot, 419, will not.
Wyncheftr, 419, Wynton, 423, Win-
chester.
Wyntur, 418, winter, meaning a whole
year.
Wynnyilg, 223, a payment made to
the confederates by the winner. The
transaction seems to have been a
kind of sub-sale or knock-out.
GLOSSARY.
495
Yeffe, 345, give.
Yere and a day, 208, 213, a year and
a day.
Yeta Ovir, 343, that over.
Yeuefi, 202, given.
Yevyng, 202, giving.
Yever, 216, giver.
Yminent, 269, imminent.
Yo^neman, 274, see Journeyman.
Youen, 419, given.
Ynglond, 354, England.
Yrelande, 350, Ireland.
3ates, 225, gates.
3efe, 393, give.
3eldon, 233, yielded.
3ere, 419, year.
3eref3Cne, 420, see Heresgive
3enen, 215, 230, 3oven, 223,
210, given.
3ite, 225, yet.
)>e, 218, the, or that. Anglo Saxon.
J>e beste wyfe he cane, 235, the best
way he can
)JOO, 217, those. Anglo Saxon.
JXDUgh, 224, though.
]>i, 421, that.
INDEX TO VOLUME I.
LIST OF SUBJECTS.
Act of Parliament, 101
Acts of Parliament —
For Paving and Repairing, 435
For regulating election of Mayor and
Eight and Forty, 101, 435
For repairing and amending towns of
Gloucester, Nottingham, Northamp-
ton, and other, 435
For Rebuilding the Town, 436
For granting an Aid to His Majesty by
a Land Tax, 436
For paving, cleansing, lighting, and
watching the town, 437
For Dividing and inclosing the Open
and Common Fields, Common Pas-
tures, Common Meadows, and other
Commonable Lands, 439
For altering and amending an Act, 440
For the Sale of the George Inn, 440
For better paving, lighting, watching,
and improving the town, 441
For better paving, lighting, cleansing,
and improving the Town, /|/)/^
For amending the Municipal Corpora-
tions Act, /|/i^
For amending the Northampton Im-
provement Act (1843), 445
For consolidating with amendments, 446
To settle and describe the Divisions of
Counties and Limits of Cities and
Boroughs in England and Wales, 443
To provide for the Regulation of Muni-
cipal Corporations, 443
To amend an Act for the Regulation of
Municipal Corporations, 443
To provide for the levying of Rates in
Boroughs and Towns, j\^\/\
To incorporate the Northampton Water-
works Company, <\/\/\
To settle and describe the Limits of
certain Boroughs, 445
To empower the corporation of North-
ampton to establish Markets and
Fairs, 445
To extend the Powers of the North-
ampton Waterworks Company, 446
To vest in the Corporation of the
Borough of Northampton the race
ground or freemen's commons, 446
To provide for a further supply of water
to the town, 447
Acts of Parliament — Continued.
To amend the Laws relating to Local
Government in England and Wales,
447
To confirm certain Provisional Orders
of the Local Government Board, 447,
448
Additions, 479
Agents, Employment of, 226
Agreement, 215
Aid of the Borough of Northampton, 8
Amerceament, 27, 170
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, I
Anne, Letters Patent of, ist, 148
Arms, Royal, 147, 149
Arrow Makers, 204, 206
Assize of Demesne, 16
Assize of —
Ale, 327
Bakers, 345
Beer, 68, 69
Bere Brewer, 347
Bochers, 345
Bread, 68, 69, 325
Brewers, 345
Cokes, 346
Cordewenez, 348
Coriour, 349
Ffisshers, 346
Inholders, 346
Mercer, Draper, Groucer, Smyth, 349
Millers, 344
Regrater, 349
Spicez, 348
Talow Chaundeler, 347
Tanner, 348
Tauerners, 347
Weuez, 348
Whittawer, 349
Wine, 68, 69
Attorney, 201
„ Power of, 201
Bailiffs, Release to, 202
„ take bail, 243
Bailiwick, 32
Baker, Profits of, 321
Barons of the Exchequer, 78
Barons' War, 49
498
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Brudtol, 27
Burgage, 78
Burgesses of Northampton, 3
Butchers, 230
Buy Food, 225
„ Hides, 225
Canons of Lincoln, n
Causes and Pleas, Right to Try, 68
Chapmen, 230
Chapters, Headings of, 208
Charles II., Letters Patent of, iSth, 137
35th, 143
Charter of 4ist Henry III., 419
Childwite, 28
Clerk of the Market, 70, 126
Cloth Workers, 229, 231
Common Council, 32
Controversy, 221
Corporal Oath, 171
Corrections, 479
Corrody, 16
Councils, List of, 451
Court of Record, 126
Courtsey, Tenant by, 217
Creditors, 233
Custody of Town, 64
„ Paying, 222
Customs of London, 27
,, „ Northampton, 213
Debts, Arrest for, 44, 45
Debtors, 233
Deodands, 132
Deputy Recorder, Power to Appoint, 147
Distress, 46, 222
Dogs, Permission Concerning, 53
Domesday Book, I
Duel, To Make, 27
Dyers, 231
Edward I., Charter of, 27th, 56, 419
„ Letters Patent of, i3th, 54
29th, 58
„ III., Charter of, nth, 66
,, IV., Charter of, 2nd, 363
„ III., Letters Patent of, 3rd, 64
9th, 65
IV., ' ist, 89
2nd, 91
„ 92
1 8th, 93
„ VI., ist, 116
Elizabeth, 4ist, 119
Enrolments, 384
Escheator, 77
Exchequer, 28
Expeditating, 53
Fairs, Two, 104
„ Seven, 120
Ffairs, Nine, 177
Fair, Liberty to Hold, 66
Farm of the Borough of Northampton, 8.
Et seq.
„ „ Town, 91, 97, 113
Felons, Goods of, 126
,, of Themselves, 132
Fines, 104
Forestallers, 68, 70
Franchise of the Town, 220
Free Marriage, 216
„ Pardon to John Collett, 408
George III., Letters Patent of, 36th, 151,
154
IV., Letters Patent of, 8th, 184
Gift of the City of Northampton, 9
Grant of Rent Charge, 399
Guihald, 94
Hanaper, 71
Henry III., Charter of nth, 38
39th, 44
„ 41 st, 46
Letters Patent of, 3rd, 34
9th, 36
36th, 41
52nd, 49, 5!
54th, 53
IV., 2nd, 72
VI.. 9th, 75
i 7th, 75
30th, 81
„ Charter of, 23rd, 77
„ „ 38th, 84
VII., „ nth, 104
Letters Patent of, nth, no
VIII.,
2nd, in
3rd, 408
5th, 113
Heresgive, 28
Hides, 227
Higham, Farm of, 14
Hiring Servants, 228
„ Shops, 227
Holy Trinity, Feast of, 67
Hostellage, 27
Hustings, 27
Huswifes' Cloth, 147
Infangthef, 47
Inquisition of, Clerk of the Market, 388
James I., Arms of, 136
„ „ Letters Patent of, i6th, 125
John, Charter of, ist, 30
Judgment, Exemplification of a, 149
„ of Pillory and Tumbrell, 314
Justices, Itinerant, 61
„ of the Peace, Election of, 104
Jurisdiction, Increase of, 125
INDEX.
499
Keeping Watch, 227
King's Justiciaries, 61
Knights of the Temple, 9. Et seq.
Land Buying, 231
Devise, 217
Estate in, 232
Granting of, 216
Purchase of, 214
Right to Give, 22O
,, Let, 220
Sell, 219
Selling, 218
Lastage, 27
Laws of Northampton, 28
Lawing, 53
Legal Notes, 457
Liber Custumarum, 197
Liberties of London, 28
,, „ Northampton, Copy of, 378
,, ,, the Town, 48
Loans, 227
London, Custom of, 31
„ Mayor of, 29
„ Sheriffs of, 29
Manucaptors, 87
Markets, Three, 120
Marshal, 150
Marshall, Livery of the, 27
Matter Demanded at the Parliament, 362
Mayor and Bailiffs, Election of, 101
,, First Mention of, 50
„ Oath of, 57, 171
Mayor's Summons, 223
Merchants, Strange, 46, 47
Ministers, 26
Mint of Northampton, II, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, 24
Money, Blanched or White, 12
Moneyers of Northampton, 13
Monks of Saint Andrew, 10
„ „ Northampton, 8. Et seq.
Murage, Concerning, 73
„ for Town, 59
Murder, Acquittance of, 27
Northampton, Arms of, 137
Battle of, 88
Fair of, 34, 66
Inclosing Town of, 37, 42
Paviage for, 55
Tower of, 19
Nuisances, 229
Oaths of—
A man admitted into the Liberty, 352
Bakers, 304, 373
Bochers, 373
Brewers, 373
Buschell, 373
Butchers and Fishers, 395
Cokes, 375
Oaths of — Continued.
Constable, 397
Company of Twenty Four, 393
Coroner, 392
Coupers, 375
Drapers, 374
Fferrours, 375
Fforstallers, 376
Ffysshers, 374
Fullers, 396
Inneholders, 374
Man admitted to Liberty, 393
Master of the Tilers' Craft, 354
,', ,, Bakers' Craft, 394
Meire and Clerke of Market and Charge,
373
Millers, 375
Office, 93
Other Weygtis, 376
Recorder, 392
Regratours, 376
Robbers, 398
Searchers of Leather, 349
„ ,, Textiles, 397
Shoemakers and Cordwainers, 395
Spicers, 374
Taillours, 375, 394
Tanners, 374
Taurchmakers, 396
Taverners, 375
That make market in their houses, 376
Tithing Man, 393
Weyztis of Auncell, 375
Ordinance —
Concerning Custody of Land, 242
„ Essomers, 241
For Breakfasts on Sundays before Cele-
bration, 311
,, Butchers, 264, 334
,, Carpenters, 237
„ Common Chest, 255
„ „ River Banks, 258
„ Craft of Bakers, 309, 333
„ „ Cordwainers, 245, 294
„ „ Fullers, 290, 302, 332
„ „ Tailors, 278
„ „ Wexchaundelers, 304
„ Dogs at Large, 248
„ Election of Burgesses of Parlia-
ment, 248
Fishmongers, 307
Having Common in Fields, 253
Innkeepers, 249
„ and Bakers, 402
Mayors not being Burgesses, 275
Pigs at Large, 247, 289, 341
Privy Council of the Mayor, 276
Redeeming of Pledges, 250
Serjeants of the Bailiff, 249
Stallages, 262
Strange Traders, 254
Strangers obtaining their Freedom,
274
the Bowbell, 252
I I 2
500
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Ordinance — Continued.
For Tilers' Craft, 329
„ Waste Spots or Places, 251
„ Weavers' Craft, 268, 298, 331
Ordinance, 241
Orphans, Custody of, 120
Ousting, 234
Pardon, General, 89
Parliaments, List of, 449
Paving and Repairing Streets, 75
Philip and Mary, Letters Patent of, 1st
and 2nd, 117
Piepowder, Courts of, 134
Pipe Rolls, 7
Plea Miskenning, 27
Pleas, 69
„ of Outholdings, 26
,, ,, the Crown, 27, 61
,, ,, ,, Forest, 21
Pleading, 229
Pontage for Town, 65
Portsoken, 27
Prothonotary, 176
Purchasing Goods, 228
Purpresture, 23
Rebellion, Pardon for, 51
Recorder of the Town, Election of, 104
Reeve, 27
Regraters, 68, 70, 225, 228
Release of Frears, Edmund, 341
Relief, 22 1
Rent, Distrain for, 218, 220
Richard I., Charter of, ist, 25
„ II., „ 8th, 68, 423
„ III., Letters Patent of, ist, 97
Sale of Fish and Salt, 223
„ „ Horses, Neat Kine, Swine and
Sheep, 223
„ „ Wool, Thread, Hides, Tallow,
Honey, Cheese, or Flesh, 221
Schedule of Public, Local, and Private
Acts of Parliament Relating to the
County Borough of Northampton,
433
Schools at Northampton, 17
Scotale, 28
Selling in One Place, 224
„ Unwholesome Meat, 230
Seneschal, 145
Servants, 222
Service, 233
Socage, 78
Stall, 223
Statute of Wynchestre, 345, 416
St. Leonard's Hospital, Lease of, 402
Supersedeas, 200
„ Writ of, 199, 200
Toll, 27
„ Cause, 195
Tolls, Unjust, 62
„ Leave to Levy, 41
Town, Concerning the Peace of the, 203
„ Register, 235
Troops, Levying of, 207
Utas, 122
Victoria, Letters Patent of, ist, 191
4ist, 193
Vendors of Hay and Straw, 224
„ ,, Timber, 224
„ Wood, 230, 231
Warrants, 104
Weights, 226
„ and Measures, 68, 69
„ „ „ Statute of, 321
,, ,, „ Composition of,
327
William IV., Letters Patent of, 6th, 187
Women, Dower of, 215
Writ to Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 407
Writs, 104
„ of Nisi Prius, 178
,, Returns of, 46
Yelverton, Arms of, 137
LIST OF PERSONS.
Abbot, John, 268
Adam, Adamffyzt, 235, 391
„ Peris, 213
,, Peter, son of, 23
,, William, 213
Adams, John, 385
,, Thomas, 194
Addis, Robert, 144
Adeliza, 4
Adkins, William, 192, 194
Adnitt, Frederick George, 194
Ager, William, 159
Ailsius, 3
Albiney, William de, 28, 453
Albin, William de, 7, 8
Albrs, Earl, 26, 28
INDEX.
501
Alfonso III. of Spain, 17
Alfwin, William, son of, 21, 22
Alice, 4
Alliston, Richard, 160
Alselin, Goisfrid, 2, 5
Aluers, Robert de, 2, 5
Alward, William, 115
Amble, Richard de, 10
Amyas, John, 90
Andeg, William, 15
Andrews, Nathaniel, 144
,, Thomas, 436
Anjou, Geoffrey, Count of, 28
Ansculf, 2, 5
Ansger, 2, 4
Antl, R., 15
Aragon, Katherine of, 108, 119
Ardern, Robert de, 64, 65
Wakelin de, 45, 48, 366
Argentine, Richard de, 40
Armfield, George, 192
„ Thomas, 160
Arundel, Earl William de, 26, 28
Richard, Earl of, 71
Ash, William, 150
Asshurne, John, 309
Asteley, John, 362, 199
.^Ethelwig, 3
Atkins, Hatton, 144
Atterbury, Thomas, 144
Austen, William, 85, 268, 297, 307, 309,
3H
Avranches, Hugh d', 4
Azur, 2, 6
Bacheler, 205
Bacon, Sir Francis, 129
Baker, George, 187
Gylbert, 235, 391
Balaam, William, 160
,, Charles, 160
Balde, Geoffrey, 361
Baldeswell, John, 276, 361
Baldwin, 2, 3, 6
Balgey, John, 334, 350
Balle, Simon, 309
Band, Nicholas, 427
Banks, Thomas, 150
Bardolphs, 5
Barnar, Cristofer, 427
Barrentine, Drogone de, 45
Barrett, John, 160
Barry, George, 192
,, James, 192, 194
Bartholomew, William, 41
Barwell, Edward Harrison, 192
,, William Harrison, 192
Bassett, William, 452
Batcheler, Gilbert, in
Bates, Thomas, 144
Bath and Wells, Thomas, Bishop of, 79
„ Henry de, 48, 366
„ Jocelyn, Bishop of, 40
Batten, Francis, 144
Baxster, Richard, 380, 379
Bayeux, Bishop of, 2, 5, 6
Bayly, John, 144
Beauchamp, Walter de, 57, 367
,, Sir John de, 88, 372
„ Thomas de, 67
Beaumont, John, Viscount of, 80, 88
Bedeford, Robertus de, 454
Bedenyn, Rafe, 213
Belaunt, Muchell, 213
Belvedeir, Robert de, 4
Bemington, Mr., 153
Benet, William, sen., 399, 400
„ „ 400
Benedict, 4
Bernhill, John, 268, 269, 361
Bernard, Thomas, son of, 17 — 20
Berridge, James, 192
Bertram, John, 361
Beryngton, Thomas, 384, 385, 386, 389
Birdsall, William, 160
Bingley, John, 194
Biste, William, 235, 391,
Blaby, Thomas, 243
Blencowe, John, 150
Bletsoe, Charles, 150
Blounde, Edward, 213
Blount, Robert, 213
Boci, Robert de, 2, 5
Bodyngton, Thomas, 2O2
Bohun, Humphrey de, 16
Boleyn, Anne, 136
Bond, Wyllm, 333, 425, 426
Boon, James, 160
Booth, Fraur, 144
Boothe, Lawrence, 88
William, 88
Boscnorman, 2, 5
Boselin, William, son of, 2, 5
Bosvyle, Rafe de, 213
Botiler, Sir Ralph, 80
Bourghchier, Henry Viscount, 88
Bouverie, Edward, 185
„ Catherine, 185
,, Honble Edward, 151
Bowdene, Roger de, 339
Bowers, John, 427
Bowyes, Richard, 425, 426
Boyes, 153
Bradfield, Simon, 93
,, John, 144
Bradford, Thomas, 121
Braffeld, Simon, 312, 387
Brafield, Thomas, 144, 290, 294, 309,
Brands, Abbot, 3
Brantyngham, Thomas, 70
Bray, Sir Edmund, 436
Braybrook, Robert de, 70
Brayfield, John, 138, 140, 144
Breant, Falk de, 34
Breton, Thomas, 159
Brian, Antony, 427
Brice, Robert, 194
Bridges, 12, 43, 143
502
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Briggs, Jeremiah, 159, 169
Brightmen, John, 427
Brittany, Earl of, 5
Brixworth, Hugh, 245
Brown, James, 159
John, 340, 341
Robert, 213
Samuel, 160
William, 184
William le, 57, 367
Brownsgrave, Arthur, 160
Buckby, John, 426
„ William, 386
Buckingham, Edward, Duke of, 109
,, Richard, 144
,, Humphrey, Duke of, 79, 88
„ Thomas, Earl of, 71, 368
Buckyngham, Henry, 242
„ John, 242
Bugby, John, 425
Willm, 427, 428
Bukby, John, 115
Burgh, Abbot of, I, 3
„ Walter de, 65
,, William de, 66, 454
Burford, Richard, 362
Burt, William, 144
Burton, Richard, 411
Butler, John, 304
Butt, John Thomas, 185
Butteler, John, 309
„ Roger, 358
Butterfield, Henry, 194
Buxton, George, 187
Cambridge, John de, 61, 62
Campion, Samuel Smith, 194
Campo, William de Longo, 29
Cantelowe, Nicholas, 361
Canterbury, Abbot of, 451
„ Becket, Archbishop of, 451,
452
„ John, Archbishop of, 67, 79,
1 08
,, Thomas, Archbishop of, 87,
372, 451
„ William, Archbishop of, 70,
368
Capel, Henry de, 40
Carmelite Brothers, 359
Carter, Sir Lawrence, 150
Castille and Leon, John, King of, 70
Catesby, Thomas, 123
„ Margaret, 123
Catterns, Thomas, 160
Cay, Wautee, 235, 391
Caysho, Henry, 261
Chambers, John, 159
Chambre, William, 411
Chamberleyn, Johem, 372
Champaigne, Odo, Earl of, 4
Chapman, Timothy, 159
Chester, Hugh, Earl of, 453
Chichester, Ralph Neville, Bishop of, 40
,, Simon, Bishop of, 33
Chipsey, Thomas, 333, 425
Chitwood, Thomas, 356, 359
Chokes, Robert de, 15
Chuifford, John, 430
Cioches, Gunfrid de, 2, 5
,, Sigar de, 2, 6
Clare, Earl Richard de, 26, 28
Clarke, Henri, 340
Clarridge, Thomas, 144
Clayhunger, John, 265, 267, 279, 282
Cleaver, Richard, 194
Clerk, 109
Clerke, John, 309, 312, 384, 385, 387, 388
Cliff, James, 159
Clifford, John, 144
,, Samuel, 144
Coldwell, Tobias, 133
,, Raphdeleur, 144
Coles, James, 139
,, Robert, 144
Colewell, Beniermin, 430
George, 419, 430
„ Tobie, 430
Collet, John, 408
Collins, John Bull, 160
Collis, Edward, 139
Colman, Henry, 384, 388
Compton, Lord, 152
Compton, Catherine, 165
Cornwall, Arthur, Duke of, 108, 109
Cook, Charles, 144
Cooke, Thomas, 192
„ William, 144
Cooper, Henry, 144
,, Thomas, 130
Cotesbroke, Adam de, 61, 62, 235, 391
Coulson, William, 194
Courtenay, Hugh, 70
„ William, 70
Coventry, Alan de, 20, 21
„ Abbot of, i, 3
,, Nicholas of, 24
Covington, Frederick, 194
Cox, Edward, 159
Crafield, Thomas, 334
Cromwell, Sir Ralph, 80
Cross, Joseph, 160
Crown, Thomas, 334
Cryspe, Richarde, 334, 353
Cuifford, John, 430
Curteys, John, 243
Cutler, Willm, 354
Dalabere, Nicholas, 263
Dalyngton, Lord of, 267, 268
Danes, 3
Dangson, James, 118
Danvers, Daniel, 436
Darby, Thomas, 312
Darcy, John, 68
Darnes, Christofer, 340
INDEX.
503
Daventre, Simon, 247, 248, 260,
Deightnen, John, 340
Denison, Edward, 150
Deraunt, Thomas, 265, 278
Derby, Robert, 194
,, Thomas, 312
,, ,, Earl of, 109
Deystere, Pentecost, 61, 62
Dickinson, Thomas, 159
Dilkin, Mr., 153
Dilley, John, 144
Dodin, 2, 6
Dorman, Mark, 192
Dorset, John, Marquis of, 79
Draper, Norman, 192
Driden, John, 440, 441
Dryand, Anthonye, 340
Duckley, John, 185
Dudley, Edmund, 312
Duke, Henry, 159
Dunckley, John, 144, 185
Dunkley, William, 160
,, John, 160
,, James, 160
Durand, the Reeve, 2, 6
,, Gilbert, son of, 23
Duraunte, Gilberd, 213
„ Wariner, 213
Durham, Richard, Bishop of, 57, 67, 108,
367
„ Lawrance, Bishop of, 88, 372
Hugh, Bishop of, 26, 28
„ Anthony, Bishop of, 57, 567
Dynham, Sir John, 109
Dyxson, Richard, 333, 426
Earlemonger, 235, 391
Ebraff, Richard, 144
Edge, Joseph, 159
Edmund, 71
Saint, Abbot of, 1,3
„ Duke of York, 71, 368
Edmunds, 188, 191, 192
Edward III., 136, 249
„ VI., 136
„ John, 385
,, the Confessor, r, 2, 3, 6
Egmont, John, Earl of, 165
Ekins, Joseph, 160
Eleanor, Queen of Spain, 17
Elizabeth, Queen, 136
Else, William, 144
Elwyneffone, William, 213
Elyot, William, in
Ely, William, Bishop of, 26, 29
Elys, William, 235, 391
Emson, Richard, 312, 353, 358, 411
Ermysted, William, 116
Ernaldis, Richard, 213
Ernulf, son of Peter, 7, 8
Essex, Earl of, 16
Everard, Phelipp, 235, 391
Peter, 45, 48, 366
Everard, William, 235
Evesham, Abbot of, 1,3
Exeter, Thomas, Bishop of, 70, 368
„ Oliver, Bishop of, 109
„ John, Duke of, 79
„ Henry, Duke of, 88
Eylsinus, 3
Farr, John, 144
Fawsley, Odo de, 17
Fereires, Henry de, 2, 4
Ferrers, Earls of Derby, 4
Ferrour, William, 90
ffish, George, 160
ffox, John, 160
„ William, 160
ffrancis, William, 159
Fisher, Francis, 12 1
Fitz-Gilbert, Richard, 28
Fitz-Piers, Simon, 12
Fitz-Roy, Geoffrey, 42, 48
Flamstead, Lord of, 4
Flanders, Walter of, 5
Flandrensis, Walter, 2, 5
Fleetwood, Charles, 436
Flexney, Henry, 144
Floure, William, 312
Flours, Richard, 355, 356
Fokser, John, 144
Foster, William, 150
Fox, John, 264
Francis, M., 153
Frears, Edmund, 342
ffreeman, Lewis C., 160
Friend, John, 139, 144
Frind, Edward, 144
ffyzt, Adam, 391
Garlickmonger, Adam, 391
Gayshoo, Henry, 358
Geoffrey, 3
George, John, 160
German, William, 45
Geytington, John de, 358
Ghent, John of, 70
Gibson, William, 159
„ John, 160
Gifard, Osbern, 2, 6
Gilberdis, William, 213
Gilbert, Robert, 213
Giles, Sir, 109
Gilo, 2, 5
Gitda, 5
Glanvill, Ralph de, 24
Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, 79, 286,
288
Gobion, Maud, 23
Gobiun, Hugh, 16
God, Alriche, 213
Godric, 4
Godwin, 2, 6
Godyng, 83
Goldwell, George, 124
Goldwyer, John, 338
504
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Goodman, Benjamin, 159
„ Samuel, 150
Grakkord, John, 76
Grandison, Otto de, 57, 367
Green, James, 144
Gregory, John, 242
Grene, William, 288
Grey, William de, 45, 48, 366
Groom, John, 192
Gubion, Margar, 24
„ Maud, 23
„ Richard, 8
Gubiun, Hugh, 7, 8
Gudgeon, Hill, 159
Gundevile, Hugh de, 16, 17, 452
Gunfrid, 6
Gurney, Joseph, 192, 194
„ William, 213
Gutton, William, 185
Gybbes, William, 296
Haddon, Laurence, 248
H agger, Thomas, 192
Hall, John, 160
„ Thomas, 151, 152, 158, 168
Hampton, William, 425
Hancok, John, 272, 277, 309, 361
Harding, Samuel, 150
Harle, John, 406
Harris, Henry, 145
„ John, 159, 160
„ „ sen., 309
„ Richard, 144
Harrison, Thomas, 144
Harry, Ingram, 213
„ Robte , 213
Harrys, John, 300
Hartshorne, Rev. C. H., 455
Haseley, Thomas, 288
Haslewode, Thomas, 41 1
Havle, John, 361
Hayes, ffrancis, 159
Hayrose, William, 299
Helford, William de, 17
Helidon, Henry de, 61, 62
Hellier, Edward, 144
Helys, William, 391
Henry I., 7
II., 7, '7
HI, 7, 48
IV., 7, 258
V. of Saxony, 13
VI., 276
Prince, 16
Duke of Exeter, 88, 372
Viscount Bourghchier, 88, 372
Hensman, Joseph, 139
„ William, 192, 194
Herleston, Gefferey, 235, 391
Herleva, 4
Herlwin, 4
Hertewell, William, 411
Hesslerige, Robert, 436
Hewlett, Daniel, 187
Higham, Thomas, 429
Hikedon, Hugh, 245
Hill, William, 192, 194
Hillyard, Clark, 159
,, Thomas, 160
Hilton, John, 293, 331, 332, 333
Hochecote, John, 61
Hodgkinson, Thomas, 159
Holbech, William de, 26, 29
Holled, Richard, 144
Hollis, John, 159
William, 192
G , 194
Holm, Richard de, 71
Holman, Sir John, 436
Holt, Samuel, 151, 153, 159
Hopkins, John Matthews, 159
Horpoll, John, 427, 428
Home, John, 358
House, John, 139
Howe, Gobeon, 213
,, Henry, 213
Howes, John, 144
Hudson, Richard, 429
Hugh, son of Robert, 16, 17
„ Earl, i, 4
„ Earl of Stafford, 71, 368
Humfrey, Thomas, 121
Humffrey, Henry, 312, 317, 334, 353, 378,
384, 385, 386, 389
Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, 88, 372
„ „ „ Gloucester, 286, 288
Hunt, Agnes, 242, 243
„ Thomas, 200, 242, 243, 267, 302,
309, 312, 387, 402
Huntingdon, Earl of, 4
Huntyngdon, William of, 213
Illyngworth, Richard, 381
Inganie, Richard, 2, 5
„ William, 2, 5
Isabel, Queen, 64, 65
Ives, Robert, 144
James, Earl of Wiltshire, 88, 372
Janes, John, 115
Jeffery, Moses, 184
Jeyes, John, 176
,. Mr., 153
Jofelyn, 213
John, Earl of Shrewsbury, 88, 372
„ King of Castile and Leon, 70, 368
„ the Clerk, 17
,, Viscount of Beaumont, 88, 372
Johnson, John, 160
„ Richard, 426, 427, 428
Jones, James, 160
,, William, 192, 194
Jonnes, Lawrence, 406
Jordan, Bartholomewe, 213
„ Philip, 213
„ ,, son of, 18, 19, 20
Judith, Countess, i, 4, 5, 6
INDEX.
505
Kelham, 4, 6
Kendale, Thomas, 199, 200
Kent, Earl of, 40
Kimbold, William, 436
King, James, 439
,, John, 144
„ Richard, 249
„ William, 159
Knyghtley, Richard, 267
Knyt, Nicholas, 144
Lacep, Thomas, 144
Lacy, Henry de, 57, 367
Lancaster, Humphrey de, 286, 288
Lancum, 195
Lane, John, 144
Lanfranc, 3
Launden, John, 361
Law, Edmund Francis, 192, 194
Lawrence, 406
„ Thomas, 428
Lee, Henry, 141, 144, 145, 146
Lefstan, 2, 6
Leicester, Earl of, 360
„ Robert de, 23
„ Earl of, 31, 33, 453
Leland, 57
Leofwinus, 3
Levi, Barnard, 160
Lewinus, 3
Lewis, King of France, 16
Leycestre, Robert of, 213
Leycettur, John, 267
Lezan, Geoffrey de, 47, 366
Lidoyus, Fulco de, n
Lincoln, Canons of, 1 1
,, Henry, Bishop of, 67
,, Oliver, Bishop of, 340
Linnell, James, 160
Liz, Simon de St., 4, 8
Lodelowe, William de, 65
Londham, John, 245
London, Robert, Bishop of, 70, 368
Long, Robert. 333
Longwile, John, 235
Lovell, 195
Philip, 48, 366
,, Salathiel, 436
Lowdeham. John, 72
Lowres, Richard, 340
Lucas, Martin, 151, 159
Lucy, Richard de, 16
Lungevill, Johannes de, 454
Lupus, 4
Luthe, Thomas de, 61, 62
Lycester, Gilbert, 288, 289, 290
Lylly, John, 265, 267, 279, 282
Lynde, William, 97, 312
Lyon, Charles, 144
Main, William, son of, 20
Mall, Willm., 293
Manchester, Edward, Earl of, 140
Manfield, Moses Philip, 194
Man ley, Laurence, 334, 340, 426
Mansell, John, 48, 366
Marchall, John, 296, 399, 400, 401
Margaret of London, 24
,, Princess, 16
Queen, 88
Markham, John, 152, 153, 154
Marry ott, Richard, 150
Marshall, John, 192
„ Henry, 192, 194
„ William, 159, 160
Martin, Henry, 194
„ Samuel, 144
„ Thomas, 130
Mary, Queen, 119, 149
Matilda, 4
Maud, 13
Maunsell, Edward, 150
Maur, Nicholas de, Saint, 48
Mcall, Henri, 340
Meacock, Richard, 159
Meinfelin, Ralph, son of, 23, 24
Merton, Walter de, 48, 366
Mey, William, 385
Meye, Richard, 356
Michael, de la Pole, 71, 368
Miller, James. 153, 159
Mills, Richard, 153, 159
„ William, 194
Milly, William, 312, 387
Mobbs, Henry, 192
Molins, Adam, 80
Montacute, John de, 71, 368
Montague, Edward, 140
Montfort, Lord Simon de, 356, 359, 360
„ Simon de, 49
Moore, Stewart A, 29
Morgan, Charles, 440
Morton, 95
Mortain, Robert, Earl of, 1,4
Morwade, Robert, 384
Mose, Robert, 307, 309, 386
Motte, John, 340, 406, 425, 426
„ Simon, 204, 206
Mouter, Robert, 76
Mulso, Thomas, 387
Muscote, William, 385
Myners, Abraham. 128
Myryell, Richard, 429
Naylor, 88
Neale, Henry, 341, 427
Nell, John, 213
Nevill, Alan de, 21
Neville, Lady Anne, 79
Newcome, John, 159
Newby, Marmaduke, 187
Nicholas, Ralph, son of 40, 45
Norfolk, Thomas, Earl of, 67
Norman, Robert, 184
„ James Berridge, 194
5o6
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Northampton, Earl of, 165, 166, 168
Northey, Sir Edward, 143
Northumberland, Henry, Earl of, 109
Norwich, John, Bishop of, 26, 28
„ Ralph de, 35
„ Sir Roger, 143
Odell, John, 185
William, 160, 185
Oldham, William, 427, 428
Orme, John, 150
Osborn, George, 151, 153, 159
Francis, 153
„ ffrancis, 160
Osmond, Henry, 144
Othoboni, 453
Owen, David, 421
Oxford, John of, 28
,, John, Earl of, 109
Packhurst, John, 150
Packingham, Lambert de, 61, 62
Pain, William, 159, 160
Paine, Whitmill, 160
Pamplion, John, 386
Parker, Francis, 192, 194
,, Thomas, 334
Parr, Bartholomew, 144
Paryn, William, 293. 300, 309
Passenham, Ralph, 361
Pattishall, Wouter of, 235, 391
Peach, Edward, 185
,, George, 187
Peake, John, 144
Peck, John, 402
Peeche, John, 26, 29, 291
Peirce, William John, 192
Pemberton, Thomas, 333
Pembroke, William, Earl of, 31, 33, 35
Penny, Thomas, 293, 333
Peny, John, 288
Pente, Henry de, 35
Percival, Honble. Spencer, 152, 154, 165,
1 68
Pervyn, John, 293, 333, 353
Perry, Pickering Phipps, 192, 194
Peter, 7, 8
„ Geoffrey, son of, 21-24
Peterborough, Abbot of, 3
Henry, Earl of, 145
Pettit, William, 144
Peverel, William, 2, 5
Phillips, William, 90
Phipps, John, 192, 194
Pickmer, Francis, 139
Pigeon, Richard, 144
,, John, 144
Pirye, William, 245
Piffcelewe, William, 213
Plantaganet, Blanche, 68
Plompton, Hewe of, 213
Pole, Michael de la, 71
Pomfret, Earl of, 439, 443
Pope, Thomas, 267.
Porte, Ernald de la, 213
Potter, Nathaniel, 144
Preston, Edmund, 199
Prestwick, William, 288
Pudsey, Hugh, 28
Pywell, William, 439
Radeclive, Thomas de, 61, 62
Radulph, William, 452
Raimond, William, son of, 19
Rain, William, 20
Rainbudcurt, Wido de, 2, 5
Rainsford, George, 128, 130
Ralph, 2, 5
Ramb, Nycolas, 340
Ramsey, Abbot of, 1,3
Randall, Henry Edward, 194
Rands, John, 144
,, Richard, 144
Ratdmyt, Frances, 144
Rawlyns, Richard, 248
Raymond, William, son of, 21
Rede, Richard, 118
Regin, son of Urli, 15
Reimund, Reginald, son of, 23, 24
Remund, William, son of, 20-24
Revel 1, Robert, 7, 8
Reymond, William, 213
„ Adam, 213
„ Reynald, 213
Richard, 4
„ I., 25, 26, 28, 29
„ the Second, 260, 264.
„ Earl of Arundel, 71, 368
Robba, 15
Robert, 4
Roberts, William, 192
Rodbert. Walter, son of, 26, 28
Roddis, Robert, 160
Roger, Tyband, 213
„ Henry, 61, 62, 63, 235, 391
Roges, John, 148
Will, 148
Roman, Arcald de, Saint, 45
Romilly, C., 194
Rovis, Robert, 355
Rows, William of the, 213
Russhden, William, sen., 237, 274, 277
jun., 277
Rygby, Michael, 90
Ryvel, John, 361
Saint Maur, Nicholas de, 48, 366
Sale, Thome, 274
Salisbury, Simon, Bishop of 57, 367
„ William, Bishop of, 79
„ Hubert, Bishop of, 26, 28
,, Richard, Bishop of, 40
„ ,, Earl of, 79
„ William, Earl of, 31, 33, 80
INDEX.
507
Saloman, Hugh, 17
Samuel the Jew, 24
Sanders, Robert, 144
Sawin, Robert, son of, 8-24
,, „ grandson of, 23, 24
,, Hugh, grandson of, l6-22
Saxby, John, 293, 329, 331, 333, 353, 354,
425, 426
,, Thomas, 309
Saye, John, 334, 353
Scofield, John, 160
Scott, 185
Scots, William, King of, 452
Scriven, Richard, 160
„ Thomas, 159
Scrivener, Thomas, 144
Scrop, Geoffry le, 61, 62
Segary, John, 159
Segrave, Hugh de, 71, 368
Selby, Abbot of, 1,4
Sergeauntson. Thomas, 90
Serjeant, Thomas, 144
Shadwick, Thomas, 144
Sharp, Hugh, 160
,, Thomas, 192
Shaw, Ffrancis, 159
Shefford, Robard, 334, 353,
Shefforde, William, 263, 264
Shepard, Thomas, 192, 194
Sherman, Bury, 355
Shippsey, Thorns, 426
Short, Samuel, 144
Shrewisbury, John, 262
Shrewsbury, John, Earl of, 80, 88
Shrovesbury, John, 262
Simon, son of Peter, 12, 15.
Simons, Samuel, 185
Siward, 4.
Skalford, Thomas de, 62
Slynde, William, 300
Smith, Charles, 159
„ John, 331
„ Thomas, 159
Smyth, John, 334, 353
Solle, John, 334, 429
Sossyndale, William, 384
Sotell, William, 235, 391
Spencer, William, 138
Spenser, Adam the, 213
Spicer, Simon, 258
SPrigy> John, 243, 275
Spristowe, John, 307, 309, 362
Stafford, Hugh, Earl of, 71
Stanley, Thomas, Lord, 109
Stanley, Thomas de, 71
Stanton, Daniel, 194
Staunford, Thomas, 235, 391
Stedman, James, 436
Stevenson, Joshua, 160
Stockburn, Henry Lenton, 187
Stokton, William, 245
Stones, Henry, 277
Stotusbury, Thomas, 361
Stratton, John of, 235, 391
Stretton, Thomas, 407
Strong, William, 192
Styles, Robert, 144
Suain, 2, 6
Suerendum, 93
Suffolk, William, Marquis of, 79
Sultzer, John, 439
Surrey, John, Earl of, 67
Sussex, Earl of, 28
Sutton, Dean Oliver, 340
James, 159
„ Thomas, 249, 361
„ William, 160
Swan, Edmund, 384
Swerendon, 372
Syxson, Richard, 425
Tame, James de, 26, 29
Tarry, William, 160
Tatynton, Peter de, 57, 367
Taylor, Thomas, 160
Tebbutt, George Minards, 194
Thiard, Henry, son of, 18
Thomas, Robert, 355
,, William, 159
Thompson, Aaron, 160
Thomson, William, 429
Thorneton, Thomas, 139
Thorneburgh, Edward, 90
Thorold, 3
Thorp, Roger, 90
Throkmarton, George M., 116
Thurstan, 4
Tichmerch, William de, 63
Tochi, 5
Todeni, Robert de, 2, 4, 6
Tomkins, Laurence, 139
Tompson, William, 159
Tonebridge, Richard de, 4
Toni, Ralph de, 4
Trasler, William, 160
„ Robert, 159, 160
Treslove, Thomas, 160
,, Samuel, 159
Trustone, Robert, 213
Trymes, Trevor, 148
Tryon, John, 150
Tunstall, Sir Richard, 88, 372
Turner, Richard, 192
Turold, 3
Twinden, John, 144
Tyssyngton, Thomas, 361
Valbadon, Ausfrid de, 2, 6
Valence, William de, 47, 48, 366
Vaughan, William, 139
Verifle, William, 391
Wahull, Walter de, 5
Waidour, Johannes le, 454
Wake, Thomas, 68
„ John, 68
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
Wake, Hereward the, 3
Waleran, 17
Waleys, John, 90
Walgier, Willm, 427
Walker, John, 293, 333
Walsham, Robtum, 372
Walter, 3
Waltheof, 4
Waltham, 71
Ward, Richard, 144
„ Thomas, 149, 150, 151, 436
Warrenne, Earl Hammeline de, 26, 28, 40
Warnes, John, 144
Warner, John, 144
Warwick, Guy, Earl of, 57, 68, 367
„ Hugh, Earl of, 45
„ John, „ 45
„ Margaret, Countess of, 45
„ Thomas, 361
Washyngton, Laurence, 350, 427
Water, John, 406
Waterworks Co., Northampton, /|^4, 446
Wattes, John, 202, 293, 333, 334, 353, 384,
385, 386
Watts, Rev. John, 184
„ Henry, 144
Waurin, Jean de, 80
Wauterissone, Water, 213
Waydourer, Geffrey, 213,
„ Richard, 213
Weccles, William, 144
Welis, Simon, Archdeacon of, 31, 33
Wellis, John, 241, 361
,, Thomas, 293
Wemmes, Richard, 247, 273, 382
Wemmings, Richard, 361
Wennys, Richard, 247
Wetherell, James, 192
Westley, Thomas, 160
Wheler, Henry, 100
Whelar, Richard, 333
Whiston, Jonathan, 139, 144
Whitcok, William, 386, 387
White, Richard, 144
„ Robert, 144
Whitfelde, Willm, 353
Whitworth, Charles, 185
Wickens, John, 153
Widvile, Hugh de, 2, 6
Wilby, Richard, 361
Wilkinson, Richard, 340, 351, 427
„ Roger, 128
William I., i, 3, 4, 5, 28
„ III., King, 149
Williams, William, 192, 194
Willoughby, John, 144
,, Robert, 109
Willughby, Thomas, 436
Wilmot, 183
Wiltshire, James, Earl of, 88
Winchester, Peter, Bishop of, 35
William, Bishop of, 70, 88,
368, 372
„ John, Bishop of, 57, 367
„ Stephen, Bishop of, 118
,, Archdeacon of, 28
Winemar, 2, 5, 6
Wirce, Goisfrid de, 2, 5
,, Geoffrey de, 5
Wiseman, Thomas, 362
Wodefall, Hugh, 386
Wodward, Thorns, 425
Wood, Edward, 159
Wright, John, 160
Wygcressone, Ingram, 213
Wykeham, William of, 70
Wylcokes, John, 384, 388
Wytor, Simon, 213
Yelverton, Christopher, 123, 129
„ Sir Henry, 127, 129, 130, 137
Yong, 114, 136
York, Edmund, Earl of, 71
„ Henry, Duke of, 109
„ Richard, Duke of, 136
„ Thomas, Archbishop of, 108
„ William, Archbishop of, 88, 372
LIST OF PLACES.
Abbot's Meadow, 120
Abington, s\<\/\
Street, 439
All Saints, Northampton, 2, 6, 281, 258
„ Churchyard, 254, 437, 445
Auckland, 67
Castle, 57
Auxerre, 4
Barnwell Castle, 439
Bedford, 3
Bedford Castle, 34
Bedfordshire, 4, 5, 407
Belvoir, 4
Bernard Castle, 57
Berwardstrete, 287
Billing Bridge, 222
Black Friars, 291, 330
Bowbell, 252
Brackley, 37, 145, 222
Bridge Street, 281, 439
Brigstock, 18
Brittany, Little, 5
INDEX.
509
Bukbroke, 399, 400
Burton Overy, 439
Bury Saint Edmunds, 3
Cambridge, 3, 105
Canterbury, 18, 28, 57, 67, 70, 79
,, Cathedral, 87, 108
Caunterbury, 425
Carshalton, 448
Carlisle, 90
Castile Albert, 413
Castle, Northampton, 6, 7, 8, 16, 19
Cawood, 1 08
Charlton, 165
Chastillion, 80
Chester, 4
Chingeshala, Meadow of, 17, 19-24
23, 24
Church of All Saints, 252,281, 358
„ „ St. Giles, 241, 243, 247, 249,
258, 261, 262, 264, 275, 298, 302, 307
Clipston, 66
Clyst, 70
Collingtree, 5
Colly Weston, 80
Cooknoe, 448
Cook's Quarter, 254
Cosgrove, 5
Coton, 403
,, Brook, 447
Cotton End, 125, 126, 127, 184, 185, 334,
438> 439. 442, 444
County Hall, 440
„ Hospital, 440
Coutance, i, 3, 4
Coventry, 3, 312
Cow Meadow, 446
Dallington, 126, 444
Daventry, 439
Denis, St., 3
Derbyshire, 5
Derngate, 19
Donypas, 61
Drapery, 439, 445
Drayton, 145
Durham, 28, 40, 67
Duston, 120, 126, 267, 268, 444
East Coton, 402
Easton Mauduit, 123, 129
Ecton, 123, 224, 448
Edmunds, Saint, End, 334
Ednigton, 79
Elkington, 5
Elmstow, 4
Est yate, 287
Eton, 79
Evesham, 3, 49
Exeter, 70
Far Cotton, /\/\/\
Fescamp, 3
Festiniog, 448
Florence, 413
Fotheringhay Castle, 88
Friars Preachers, 291, 330
Geddington, 17
General Infirmary, 440
Genoa, 413
George Inn, 440
Row, 439
Ghent, 67
Glastonbury. 40
Gloucester, 435
Gloucestershire, 3
Gold Street, 439
Grafton Regis, 71
Grey Friars, 356, 359
Guildhall, 260, 276, 288, 309, 312, 333,
382, 388, 389, 442
„ Chamber of, London, 29
Guyhalde, 274, 293, 351, 353
Gylde Hall, 305
Halifax, 447
Hall of Northampton, 20
Hardingstone, 126, 184, 269, 339, 402,
442, 444
Harrow, 165
Haversham, 242
Hendle, 70
Hertford, 3
Higham Ferrers, 14, 18, 145
Holy Land, 28
Horse Market, 291,330
Hospital of S. Thomas, 35
Huntingdon, 3, 4, 17
Italy, 413
James, Saint, 5
Joppa, 35
Kenilworth, 64
Kingshale, Meadow of, 16, 18, 22
Kingston-on-Thames, 90
Kingsthorpe, 402, /\/\/\
Kyngeswellstrete, 287
Leicester, 63, 92, 439
Leicestershire, 3
Lenton, 5
Leonard, St., Hospital of, 65
Lichborough, 3
Lincoln, 3, 67, 362
„ Cathedral, 340
Lincoln's Inn, 40
Lombardy, 413
London, 17, 28, 90, 252
NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH RECORDS.
London, City of, 25, 27, 29, 195, 204 Rothwell, 63
Luffield Priory, 33 Rugby, 126
Macclesfield, 448
Maidstone, 70, 79, 205, 206
Maidwell, 4
Manche, 3
Market Hill, 439, 437
Mary, St. Overie, 35
Mayfield, 67
Mercers' Row, 254, 439, 445
Merket Place, 286, 287
Milan, 413
Milford, 447
Milton, 5
Mint at Northampton, 19
Mortain, i, 4
Nine, or Nen, 222, 258, 440, 442
Nobottle Grove, 126
Norfolk, 3
Normandy, 3
Northampton, i. Et seq.
Fields, 439, 442
Northamptonshire, 3, 24. Et seq.
Northumberland, 428
North End, 439
„ Yate, 287
Nothingham, 435
Nottingham, 66, 100
Nottinghamshire, 5
Nowhall, 185
Old, 260
„ Yee, 267, 268
Ossett, 448
Oxford, 67, 70
Paston, 80
Paul's, St., London, 70
Peacock Hotel, 152, 154
Peter, Saint, Northampton, 2, 6
Peterborough, 3
Plompton, 213
Poictiers, 29
Portesmouth, 207
Portland, 2, 6
Priory, St. Andrew's, 8
Saint Albans, 4
„ Andrew's Parish, 439
Priory, 8
,, Giles' Churchyard, 437
„ „ Parish of, 184, 185, 439
„ „ Square, 439
„ ,, Street, 287, 439, 440
,, James', 268
„ ' „ End, 125, 126, 127, 334, 444
„ John, Baptist Hospital of, 121, 281
„ John's Hospital, 121
„ Lawrence's Parish, 439
,, Leonard, Hospital of, 65, 230, 402,
403
„ Leonard's, 339
,, Mary le Bow, Church of, Cheapside,
London, 252
,, Sepulchre's Parish, 439
Salcey, 68
Salisbury, 40
Sarum, New, 61
Schools at Northampton, 17
Seint Martin Strete, 287
„ Mary Strete, 287
Selby, i, 4
Sepulchre, Holy, Church of the, 9, 91
Sever, St., 4
Seynt Thomas Brygge, 287
Sheep Street, 439
Shenee, Manor of, 207
Sherwood, 66
Silveston, 18
Silverston, 43
Slapton, 222
Slipton, or Slapton, 62, 63
South Bridge, 230, 403, 437, 438
Southwell, 88
Staffordshire, 4
Stanford, 4
Stanwick, 35
Stoke Bruerne, 6
Stratford-on-Avon, 67
Suffolk, 3
Sutton, 80
Swynwellstrete, 287
Syresham, 222
Queenborough, 70
Radston, 64
Ramsey, 3
Ravensthorpe Brook, 447
Ravensthorpe Reservoir, 447
Richmond (Surrey), 448
Rochdale, 447
Rockingham, 68, 79
Castle, 286
Rothersthorpe, 5
Teeton Brook, 447
Tenterden, 447
Thorneton, go
Towcester, 222, 312
Tower Hill, 312
,, of Northampton, 19, 20
Trent, Bridge over, 66
Tutbury, 4
Venice, 413
INDEX.
Wakefield Union, District of the, 448
Walton, 90
Warwickshire, 3
Waterloo House, 254
Waynflete, 88
Welford, 5
Wells Cathedral, 40
,, Palace at, 79
Werburgh, St., 4
West Bridge, 267, 268, 437
„ Cotton, 125, 126, 127
,, Holmes, 120
Weste Yate, 287
Westminster, 35, 40, 48, 54, 55, 61, 65,
68, 71, 74, 76, 80, etc.
Whitchurch, 406
White Friars, 356, 359
Whittlebury, 68
Whiston, 448
Wigan, 447
Winchester, 35, 57, 70, 88
„ Cathedral, 108
College, 57
Windsor, 31, 33, 45, 50, 52, 70, 109
Wood Hill, 437, 438, 439
Woodstock, 17
Worcestershire, 3
Wymersley, 126
Wyndefor, Cafftell, 204
Yethampstead, 70
York, 61, 90
Yorkshire, 4
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